DR. JONATHAN (smiling). An autocracy of professors instead of business men. Well, every dog has his day. And George is coming home.
ASHER. And what is there left to hand over to him if he lives? What future has the Pindar Shops,--which I have spent my life to build up?
DR. JONATHAN. If George lives, as we hope, you need not worry about the future of the Pindar Shops, I think.
AUGUSTA. If G.o.d will only spare him!
ASHER. I guess I"ve about got to the point where I don"t believe that a G.o.d exists.
(A flash and a loud peal of thunder.)
AUGUSTA. Asher
ASHER. Then let Him strike me!
(He hurries abruptly out of the door, left.)
AUGUSTA (after a silence). During all the years of our married life, he has never said such a thing as that. Asher an atheist!
DR. JONATHAN. So was Job, Augusta,--for a while.
AUGUSTA (avoiding DR. JONATHAN"S glance, and beginning to knit). You wanted to speak to me, Jonathan?
(The MAID enters, lower right.)
MAID. Timothy Farrell, ma"am.
(Exit maid, enter TIMOTHY FARRELL.)
AUGUSTA. I"m afraid Mr. Pindar can"t see you just now, Timothy.
TIMOTHY. It"s you I"ve come to see, ma"am, if you"ll bear with me,--who once took an interest in Minnie.
AUGUSTA. It is true that I once took an interest in her, Timothy, but I"m afraid I have lost it. I dislike to say this to you, her father, but it"s so.
TIMOTHY. Don"t be hard on her, Mrs. Pindar. She may have been wild-like in Newcastle, but since she was back here to work for the doctor she"s been a good girl, and that happy I wouldn"t know her, and a comfort to me in me old age,--what with Bert gone, and Jamesy taken to drink! And now she"s run away and left me alone entirely, with the shops closed, and no work to do.
AUGUSTA (knitting). She"s left Foxon Falls?
TIMOTHY (breaking down for a moment). When I woke up this morning I found a letter beside me bed--I"m not to worry, she says and I know how fond of me she was--be the care she took of me. She"s been keeping company with no young man--that I know. If she wasn"t working with the doctor on that discovery she"d be home with me.
AUGUSTA. I"m sorry for you, Timothy, but I don"t see what I can do.
TIMOTHY. I minded that you were talking to her yesterday in the lab"rat"ry, before the telegram came about Mr. George.
AUGUSTA. Well?
TIMOTHY. It was just a hope, ma"am, catching at a straw-like.
AUGUSTA (tightening her lips). I repeat that I"m sorry for you, Timothy.
I have no idea where she has gone.
TIMOTHY (looking at her fixedly. She pauses in her knitting and returns his look). Very well, ma"am--there"s no need of my bothering you. You"ve heard nothing more of Mr. George?
AUGUSTA (with sudden tears). They"re sending him home.
TIMOTHY. And now that ye"re getting him back, ma"am, ye might think with a little more charity of her that belongs to me--the only one I"d have left.
(TIMOTHY goes out, lower right. AUGUSTA is blinded by tears. She lets fall her ball of wool. DR. JONATHAN picks it up.)
AUGUSTA. I try to be fair in my judgments, and true to my convictions, but what Minnie has done cannot be condoned.
DR. JONATHAN (sitting down beside AUGUSTA) And what has Minnie done, Augusta?
AUGUSTA. You ask me that? I try hard to give you credit, Jonathan, for not knowing the ways of the world--but it"s always been difficult to believe that Minnie Farrell had become well--a bad woman.
DR. JONATHAN. A bad woman. I gather, then, that you don"t believe in the Christian doctrines of repentance and regeneration.
AUGUSTA (bridling). The leopard doesn"t change his spots. And has she shown any sign of repentance? Has she come to me and asked my pardon for the way in which she treated me? Has she gone to church and asked G.o.d"s forgiveness? But I know you are an agnostic, Jonathan,--it grieves me. I couldn"t expect you to see the necessity of that.
DR. JONATHAN. If it hadn"t been for Minnie, I shouldn"t have been able to achieve a discovery that may prove of value to our suffering soldiers, as well as to injured operatives in factories. In spite of the news of her brother"s death, Minnie worked all afternoon and evening.
It was midnight when we made the successful test, after eight months of experiment.
AUGUSTA. I hope the discovery may be valuable. It seems to me that there is too much science in these days and too little religion. I"ve never denied that the girl is clever.
DR. JONATHAN. But you would deny her the opportunity to make something of her cleverness because in your opinion; she has broken the Seventh Commandment. Is that it?
AUGUSTA. I can"t listen to you when you talk in this way.
DR. JONATHAN. But you listen every Sunday to Moses--if it was Moses?--when he talks in this way. You have made up your mind, haven"t you, that Minnie has broken the Commandment?
AUGUSTA. I"m not a fool, Jonathan.
DR. JONATHAN. You are what is called a good woman. Have you proof that Minnie is what you would call a bad one?
AUGUSTA. Has she ever denied it? And you heard her when she stood up in this room and spoke of her life in Newcastle.
DR. JONATHAN. But no court of law would convict her on that.
AUGUSTA. And she had an affair with George. Oh, I can"t talk about it!
DR. JONATHAN. I"m afraid that George will wish to talk about it, when he comes back.
AUGUSTA, She"s been corresponding with George--scheming behind my back.
DR. JONATHAN. Are you sure of that?
AUGUSTA. She confessed to me that she had had letters from him.