"Why?"
"I may have had a touch of altruism in me, but of late years...."
"What?"
"I have thought a great deal of myself. When I got married ... I was seeking my own happiness. I wanted to find happiness for myself in my wife and children, for my own self ... and hang the rest!"
"Ah, was that your idea? Well, it was a healthy idea too."
"A healthy idea, wasn't it? So you were wide of the mark, Daddy. I wanted a wife who belonged to me, children who belonged to me: all forming one great happiness for myself."
Van der Welcke wreathed himself in clouds of smoke.
"So you see, Daddy, the advice which you gave me I followed of my own accord."
"Yes, old boy, I see."
"That's so, isn't it?"