The Strange Love of Martha Ivers Page #6

- No, thank you. I'll have another drink.

- Walter!

If there's to be a discussion,

I'll need another drink.

Otherwise, I shall neither hear,

nor be coherent...

when, and if, I reply to whatever

it is you're about to say.

Did you forget

that you were supposed to speak tonight?

I didn't forget, I...

It' s nice. Your room, I mean.

It's been a long time since I've been here.

- Where were you?

- Getting drunk.

- Where?

- I'm still the people's choice, honey.

I did not make a public display

of myself anywhere.

You realize, of course,

that you will one day, inevitably.

- Inevitably.

- It's your career, not mine.

What's mine is yours.

Don't you think

I'm entitled to an explanation?

What do you want me to say?

- I don't want to put words in your mouth.

- I'd prefer that you would.

All right. When did you get drunk?

Where did you get drunk?

Why did you get drunk?

Don't stand over me like that.

I'm a sentimental man, Martha.

I started to get dressed...

then I realized it was the fourth

anniversary of my father's death.

I thought it would be nice

if I went to the cemetery and...

laid a wreath of flowers on his grave.

However, I never got there.

Sentiment overwhelmed me.

I stopped off to have a drink

to his sainted memory.

As I drank, I thought to myself,

it's such a pity that my father isn't alive...

to be able to see for himself

all his dreams come true.

The dreams he worked so hard for.

His son, a famous man.

Married to a beautiful and wealthy woman.

All right.

Now tell me why you got drunk?

Because I couldn't get up

and speak before people.

Walter, listen to me, what's done is done.

- The deed's done, not the thought.

- You've got a life to live.

- I don't know, I'm not sure.

- A brilliant career.

- My father always said that.

- Your father was right.

He was never right about anything.

From the day he walked in

and found your aunt on the floor...

I told you I never want that mentioned.

To the day he sat beside you in

the courtroom, as I, the public prosecutor...

demanded that the state take the life

of a man...

for the brutal murder of Mrs. Ivers.

My father said nothing.

I looked at him, but he said nothing.

Your father was a realistic man.

My father, may he rest in peace,

was a greedy man.

The man they executed was a criminal.

If he hadn't hanged for that,

he would have hanged for something else.

The man was a man. Justice is justice.

That's the way it is. I...

I can't get up and speak before people.

The words stick in my throat.

I'd rather get drunk. I do get drunk.

I did get drunk.

Walter, dear, listen to me.

If you carry a thing in your mind,

it makes you sick.

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