Roger
I know you think I'm a brute for speaking of Arthur in connection with the devil, but it wasn't the old-fashioned devil I meant. I meant the devil of unfitness. Arthur wasn't fit. He had every chance. We can't get away from what life is. Life shoves people to the wall every day. I've had to fight hard myself. I admit things aren't fair all round, but Arthur had his chance, two or three chances, and he just—dropped out. He couldn't survive. And it seems to me that for those who loved him it may be a good thing after all that he didn't have to go on.
Margaret
Roger! You shan't say that! You shan't!
Roger
I don't want to, Margaret, but that's what life itself says. We can't get behind life. We can't beat evolution and the law of survival.
Margaret
But his talent, his fine talent—and his exquisite nature!
Roger
I know. But there it is. It's kinder in the long run to be cruel, if the truth is cruel. We've got to be true to things as they are.