“Maybe he’s changed his mind.”
Johnny smiled and shook his head regretfully. Suddenly Peggy was on her feet, talking quickly and earnestly.
“Mr. Dwyer,” she said, “we don’t want to pry into Mr. Agate’s personal life. You said yourself no one should poke his nose into someone else’s business. Well, I agree. But at the same time you just admitted that he was unhappy and missed the theater. You said it was his whole life. Sometimes, Mr. Dwyer, people need help. They need to have their eyes opened so they can see the life they’re missing. The life that belongs to them if only they reach out and take it. Doesn’t Mr. Agate deserve a second chance? I—I don’t know what happened fifteen years ago. I don’t know why he left the stage and I wouldn’t dream of asking him.”
“Then what do you want to ask him?”
“I want to ask him to come back to the life he loves,” Peggy said simply.
“I tried that myself,” Johnny said. “It didn’t work.”
Peggy pulled a chair over beside Johnny and looked into his face. “Sometimes,” she said gently, “the wrong person does the asking.”
Johnny stared at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
Peggy was flushed and embarrassed at what she was about to say, but she held her ground. “We’re young,” she said as kindly as she could. “We’re still part of the theater he misses so much. If we want him back, that’s different from....” Her voice trailed off in confusion as she anxiously watched Johnny’s reaction.
Johnny nodded in comprehension. “Different from an old fellow like me doing the asking. Somebody who’s through, himself. Is that what you mean?”