What I mean is we were pals at school, chums at college, stanch
friends for twenty years.

STERLING. Hell! Are we as old as all that?

WARDEN. Inseparable friends till the last two years.

[STERLING'S _eyes shift._

STERLING. I've been overworked lately, and everything has gone wrong!

WARDEN. [_Comes up to him, and speaks firmly but still friendly._] You
_yourself_ have _gone wrong_!

STERLING. [_On the defensive._] What do you mean?

WARDEN. Why did you take your business out of my hands?

STERLING. The law didn't pay me enough. I thought I'd try a little
amateur stockbroking.

[_Smiling insincerely._

WARDEN. You didn't want _me to know_ what you were doing!

STERLING. Rats!

WARDEN. You didn't want me to know what funds--_whose_ funds--you were
using--_mis_using.

STERLING. [_Ugly._] What!

WARDEN. Whose money you were gambling with!

STERLING. Have you been spying on me?

WARDEN. Your _wife's_ money!

STERLING. Well, she's _my_ wife, and you don't know what you're talking
about!

[_He turns from him and picks up a book from the table upside down and
pretends to read it._

WARDEN. You stole from me once when you were a boy!

STERLING. No! I didn't!

[_Throwing the book down._

WARDEN. You lie! Do you hear me? _You lie!_ [_He waits a second._
STERLING _does nothing._] I was never sure till to-day! I fought against
ever thinking it, believing my suspicions were an injustice to you, but
little things were always disappearing out of my rooms--finally, even
money. Lately, that old suspicion has come back with a fuller force, and
to-day it became a certainty.

STERLING. How to-day?

WARDEN. Because if it weren't true, you'd have knocked me down just now
when I called you first a thief and _twice_ a liar!

[_He stands squarely facing him._ STERLING _stands facing him also,
surprised, taken off his guard._

STERLING. Oh, come, you're joking! [WARDEN _makes an angry
exclamation._] Why're you telling me all this now?

WARDEN. Because I want you to be careful. I want you to know some one is
watching you! Some one who knows what you've come to! Some one who knows
you can't resist temptation! Some one who knows money not yours _has_
stuck to your fingers!

STERLING. You mind your own business.

WARDEN. I'll mind _yours_ if it's necessary to protect people who are
dear to me!

[STERLING _looks at him with a sudden suspicion._

STERLING. [_Insinuatingly._] I didn't know you were particula