[Handing the letter to him.]
Simpson (reading): ‘Remember your friends. They remember you. Be just to yourself. Afton Water.’ (Returning the letter.) An obscure reference.
Burns: Just to myself. Are we just to ourselves, Mr. Simpson?
Simpson: It is many years since I asked myself that question, Mr. Burns. I was ambitious once.
Burns: And you betrayed yourself?
Simpson: I accepted my limitations.
Burns: I could have been a different man, Mr. Simpson, and she died. I, too, am accepting my limitations. We’re not very proud of it, eh, Mr. Simpson?
Simpson: I do not vex my mind on the matter any longer.
Burns: That’s it. It comes. It is coming to me—I know it. Mary, lass, Mary.
[And now, brooding far away from his environment, he sings.]