GER. I confess that I am.

HAGEN. Did you think I was never coming back?

GER. I had given you up.

HAGEN. Well, here I am . . . to report progress.

GER. [After a pause.] Where have you been these two years?

HAGEN. Oh, I've been seeing life . . .

GER. You didn't like the boarding school?

HAGEN. [With sudden vehemence.] Did you think I would like it? Did you
think I'd come to this world to have my head stuffed with Latin
conjugations and sawdust?

GER. I had hoped that in a good Christian home . . .

HAGEN. [Laughing.] No, no, Gerald! I let you talk that sort of thing
to me in the beginning. It sounded fishy even then, but I didn't say
anything . . . I wanted to get my bearings. But I hadn't been twenty-
four hours in that good Christian home before I found out what a
kettleful of jealousies and hatreds it was. The head master was an old
sap-head; and the boys! . . . I was strange and ugly, and they thought
they could torment and bully me; but I fought 'em . . . by the Lord, I
fought 'em day and night, I fought 'em all around the place! And when
I'd mastered 'em, you should have seen how they cringed and toadied!
They hated the slavery they lived under, but not one of them dared