ROBERT.  Cos why?

MARY.  I don’t want to be unkind.

[ROBERT sinks stricken into the chair behind him.]

ROBERT, Oh, my Gawd, my Gawd!

MARY [relenting].  Of course, if—­if you’re sorry, that makes a difference.  Being sorry makes a lot of difference.  Doesn’t it?

ROBERT.  Yus, a fat lot!

MARY.  Only you must never give way to such a wicked temptation again.  Oh, don’t cry! [She goes to him.]

ROBERT.  Oo is cryin’?  I’m not cryin’—­not a cryin’ sort! 
On’y—­you ’adn’t no right to talk to me like that, miss.

MARY.  Why, didn’t you own . . .

ROBERT.  No, I didn’t.  It was you as jumped down my throat, an’ took up my words afore I got ’em out.

MARY.  Oh:  I’m sorry.  Did I make a mistake?

ROBERT.  Yus, miss—­a whopper.

MARY.  Then you’re not a . . .

ROBERT. No, swelp me Gaw—­ [He pulls himself up.] I assure you, no.  I’m a bit of a low un; but I never come so stinkin’ low as that.

You thought I looked like one, all the same.  Didn’t yer, now?

MARY.  Well, you see, I thought you said so; and then there’s your . . .

ROBERT.  I know!  You don’t like my mug.  It ain’t much of a mug to look at, is it?  Sort of a physog for a thief, eh?  See them lines?—­Want to know what them stand for?  That’s drink, an’ starvation, an’ ‘ard work, an’ a damned lonely life.

MARY.  Oh, you poor man!

ROBERT.  Yus, miss, I am.

MARY.  You mustn’t say “damned,” you know.

ROBERT.  No, miss.

MARY. That’s wicked, at any rate.

ROBERT.  Yus, miss.

MARY.  And you owned yourself that you drank.  That’s not very good, either.

ROBERT.  No, miss.

MARY.  So, you see, you are a little bit naughty, after all, aren’t you?

ROBERT.  Yus, miss.

MARY.  Now, isn’t it much nicer for you to try and look at things in this way?  I’m sure you feel a great deal better already.

Do you know—­ Wait a moment . . .

[She resumes her seat, turning it towards him, the passion of salvation in her eyes.]

Do you know, I’d like to do you some good!

ROBERT.  You, miss?

MARY.  Yes, wouldn’t you like me to?

ROBERT.  You’re the on’y person in the world I’d—­I’d like to see try, miss.

MARY [glad in the consciousness of “being used"].  That’s because you know I’m interested in you, that I mean it, that I’m not trying to think only of myself.

ROBERT [a little stupidly].  Aren’t you, miss?

MARY.  No:  we must always remember that there are other people in the world besides ourselves.

[This coincides with his experience:  he says so.]

ROBERT.  Yus, miss, there are.

MARY.  Very well:  now I’ll see what I can do to help you.