Richard
[Points.] Help yourself.
Robert
[Does so.] Thanks. [He drinks and goes on as before.] Then you yourself, the way you loll on that lounge: then your boy's voice and also—Bertha herself. Do you allow me to call her that, Richard? I mean as an old friend of both of you.
Richard
O why not?
Robert
[With animation.] You have that fierce indignation which lacerated the heart of Swift. You have fallen from a higher world, Richard, and you are filled with fierce indignation when you find that life is cowardly and ignoble. While I . . . shall I tell you?
Richard
By all means.
Robert.
[Archly.] I have come up from a lower world and I am filled with astonishment when I find that people have any redeeming virtue at all.
Richard
[Sits up suddenly and leans his elbows on the table.] You are my friend, then?
Robert
[Gravely.] I fought for you all the time you were away. I fought to bring you back. I fought to keep your place for you here. I will fight for you still because I have faith in you, the faith of a disciple in his master. I cannot say more than that. It may seem strange to you . . . Give me a match.
