ELIS. That was the last misfortune. With Christine. I could carry the other burdens, but now the last support has been pulled away and I am falling.
MRS. HEYST. Well, fall then—but land right side up, and then you can start again. Any news worth reading in the paper?
ELIS. I don't know. I am afraid to look at it today.
MRS. HEYST. Give it to me, then. I am not—
ELIS. No, wait a moment—
MRS. HEYST. What are you afraid of?
ELIS. The worst of all.
MRS. HEYST. The worst has happened so many times that it doesn't matter. Oh, my boy, if you knew my life—if you could have seen your father go down to destruction, as I did, and I couldn't warn all those to whom he brought misfortune! I felt like his accomplice when he went down—for, in a way, I knew of the crime, and if the judge hadn't been a man of great feeling, who realized my position as a wife and mother, I too would have been punished.
ELIS. What was really the cause of father's fall? I have never been able to understand.
MRS. HEYST. Pride—pride. Which brings us all down.