“Mother—why couldn’t I have been brought up to a profession?”
“You know why—you weren’t strong enough. It was as much as I could do to keep you alive.”
“I’m strong enough now.”
“Only because I took such care of you. Only because you hadn’t to go out and earn your own living. You’d have been dead before you were twenty if I hadn’t kept you with me.”
“It would have been better if you’d let me die.”
“Don’t say that, Wilfrid. What should I have done without you? What should I do without you now?”
“You mean if I married?”
“No, my dear. I’d be glad if you could marry. I don’t want to keep you tied to me for ever. If you can get better work and better pay by going anywhere else, I shan’t mind your leaving me.”
“I shouldn’t get anything. I’m not good enough. I shall never be worth more than fifty pounds a year anywhere. We can’t live on that.”
“If you could live on half my income, I’d give it you, but you couldn’t.”