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my idea, that was only incidental. My idea was to get him into the habit of hard work. MARGARET But he always _did_ work! ROGER Oh, he worked hard enough. At least he turned out a good deal. But that was spasmodic--night and day for weeks, and then loafing for weeks more. That's how he always got into trouble: loafing in between. MARGARET Don't you remember how splendid he was the day he had just finished something? He seemed to have passed out of himself into a shining humility. It was said of Shelley: _"Sun-treader!"_... Don't you remember? ROGER Yes.... Oh hang it! Why couldn't he have been only that! Yes, I remember. I hoped that six months or so at the office--but no. Anyhow, it's all over now. MARGARET What were you going to say? ROGER I suppose I might as well say it: I don't believe the office would have changed him, after all. That is, permanently. He'd have done his best for a while, and then--. No, nothing could help him. MARGARET Is that what you have made up your mind about? ROGER Oh, that. Yes, that's what started me thinking. Everybody has difficulties, troubles, and I believe in helping a fellow every time. Life piles up too high against one sometimes, but a little shove from the other side will move it away. I never believed in the devil take the hindmost, at all. But this was different. MARGARET Different, how? What do you mean? ROGER I mean that as long as a fellow's difficulties are outside him you can help him, because as soon as they are removed he's himself again; but when they are inside, part of the man himself, there's nothing you can do. Nothing. You can save a person from the world, but not from himself. That's where the devil comes in. I see it now. I believe in the devil. MARGARET Oh! But _Arthur_.... ROGER I know you think I'm a brute for speaking of Arthur in connection with the devil, but it wasn't the old-fashioned devil I meant. I meant the devil of unfitness. Arthur wasn't _fit_. He had every chance. We can't get away from what life is. Life shoves people to the wall every day. I've had to fight hard myself. I admit things aren't fair all round, but Arthur had his chance, two or three chances, and he just--dropped out. He couldn't _survive_. And it seems to me that for those who loved him it may be a good thing after all that he didn't have to go on. MARGARET Roger! You shan't say that! You shan't! ROGER I don't w
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