MARY ROSE. Do you mind my going upstairs into the apple-room and sometimes knocking on the floor? I think it would be a help to him to know I am so near by.
MRS. MORLAND. It would be a help to all of us, my sweet.
MARY ROSE (plaintively). You—you won’t try to put him against me, Daddy?
MR. MORLAND. I would try my hardest if I thought I had any chance.
(When she has gone they are a somewhat forlorn pair.)
Poor old mother!
MRS. MORLAND. Poor old father! There couldn’t be a nicer boy, though.
MR. MORLAND. No, but— (He has a distressing thought.)
MRS. MORLAND (quietly). Yes, there’s that.
MR. MORLAND. It got me on the quick when she said, ‘You won’t try to put him against me, Daddy’—because that is just what I suppose I have got to do.