"Yes. Alcohol and arsenic are different poisons. But they're similar in at least one respect. The effects of each are cumulative. To one who has been over-drugged with arsenic a slight amount more may prove a fatal dose. So of a person whose will has been undermined and almost paralyzed with alcohol—"
"That's it, papa. Don't you see? If he lacks the will, the strength, the self-control to resist!"
"No, that isn't the point. It's your part in this most unfortunate occurrence that I'm now considering."
"My part?"
"You told him that he must not look to you for help or even sympathy. I can understand your position as to that. At the same time, should you not have been as neutral on the other side? Was it quite fair for you to add to his temptations?"
"Yet the fact of his weakness—"
"I'm not talking about him, my dear. It's what you've done—the question whether you do not owe him reparation for your part in his—misfortune."
"My part?"
"Had you not forced him into what I cannot but consider an unfair test of his strength, he would not have fallen. Griffith tells me that he was well along toward a solution of the Zariba Dam. Had you not caused this unfortunate interruption in his work, he might soon have proved himself a master engineer. That would have strengthened him in his fight against this hereditary curse."
"He was to fight it on his own strength."