You never know, John.... Five generations ago the Clays were respectable carpenters. They weren't wealthy and they gave no promise of becoming wealthy. Then suddenly our revered ancestor became a successful maker of cypress drain pipes--sewer pipes, I think we used to call them! The family fortunes were founded!! Our ancestor bought a high hat and the esteem of his neighbors. Cypress was in time replaced by pottery. Conduits for wires and terra cotta building materials were added to our achievements and then in your régime superfine sewers became a specialty. JOHN Every kind of concrete work! NATHANIEL I beg your pardon! Concrete sewers and other concrete things.--Such is the foundation of the family. JOHN You are evidently ashamed of our business. NATHANIEL Not at all, but I cannot consider the manufacturing of sewers a greater achievement than acting. JOHN Nathaniel, are you an actor? NATHANIEL No. JOHN What are you? NATHANIEL For the present I am Jonathan's uncle. JOHN You have nothing to do with Jonathan. NATHANIEL The boy is not going to Somerset School. JOHN Nathaniel, I shall not tolerate your interference. Now I must ask you to leave this house. NATHANIEL What? LETITIA John... Nathaniel... my boys, it isn't my way to interfere; but please for my sake, for your mother's sake--think what you're doing. JOHN (_With some tenderness he lays his hand on Letitia's_) I have thought, Aunt Letitia. I can not allow this boy's life to be ruined as Emily's and Henry's and Nathaniel's were. NATHANIEL Ruined? John, I'll tell you how ruined my life has been and I'll tell you in terms you'll understand. My income last year was over $350,000! JOHN Are you acting now? NATHANIEL Yes, I'm acting--I'm acting in terms that you will understand.... You know that I'm your brother Nathaniel. Do you know who else I am? I am a writer and a playwright and a director in the United Baking Company and a stockholder in the National Munitions Company--munitions, John; think of it, millions, millions in them--and I'm willing and eager to take Emily's boy and educate him in the way he wants to live his life. JOHN What are these heroics? NATHANIEL I mean what I say. If need be I shall use brute force, financial force or any kind of force to free Jonathan from the misery that I endured in this house. JOHN You had everything you wanted. NATHANIEL Everything except freedom to think my own thoughts. John, some people are like reinforced concrete. Someone builds the iron frame and the wooden molds, then pours the cement and when it has hardened, the molds are removed and lo, you have a monolith--a solid unchangeable stone. JOHN You talk very well, Nathaniel, but I shall insist upon bringing up my sister's child in my way. NATHANIEL Would you have him run away as I did? JOHN He will never run away again. He has had his lesson. [_Jonathan enters carrying a suit case._ JONATHAN May I speak to you, Uncle John? JOHN