LAURA. At this moment you are on the point of doing something that will put a brand upon your conscience for the balance of your career. And at this moment you are confronted with the realization that you are ruining your daughter's life. You see her before you, desperate... frantic with shame and grief. And you have to make up your mind, either to drive her from you, heart-broken... or else to turn your face from these evils, and to take up a new way of life. HEGAN. [Broken and crushed, sits staring at her.] Laura! LAURA. [Stretching out her arms to him.] Father! A knock at the door; they start. GRIMES. [Enters.] Oh! Beg pardon! HEGAN. Come in. LAURA. [Starting up.] No! HEGAN. Come in! You must know it! GRIMES. What is it? HEGAN. Shut the door! Grimes, the game is up! GRIMES. How d'ye mean? HEGAN. We've been betrayed. Somebody knows all about the Court decision... about what passed between you and Porter, and between you and me! GRIMES. The hell you say! HEGAN. We're threatened with exposure! GRIMES. Who is it? HEGAN. I don't know. GRIMES. But, then... HEGAN. My daughter tells me. But she is not at liberty to give the names. GRIMES. Well, I'll be damned! [He stares from HEGAN to LAURA; then comes and sits, very deliberately, where he can gaze at them. A long pause; then, nodding toward them.] What's her game? HEGAN. [Weakly.] She will tell you. GRIMES. [Looking at her.] Well? LAURA. I am here to plead with my father to turn back from this wickedness. GRIMES. [Stares.] And do what, ma'am? LAURA. Quit Wall Street, and devote himself to some useful work. GRIMES. [After a pause.] And if he won't? LAURA. I have told him he must choose between his present career and his daughter's love. GRIMES. [Gazes at LAURA, then in front of him; slowly shakes his head.] I can't make out our young people. When I was a boy, young women looked up to their parents. What's your father done to you, that you should turn against him? LAURA. I have not turned against him, Mr. Grimes. GRIMES. [Indicating HEGAN, who sits in an attitude of despair.] Look at him! [A pause.] LAURA. I am pleading with him for his own good... to give up this cruel struggle... GRIMES. To turn tail and run from his enemies? LAURA. It is of my duty to the public that I am thinking, Mr. Grimes. GRIMES. You owe no duty to this world higher than your duty to your father. LAURA. You think that? GRIMES. I think it. LAURA. [Hesitates a moment, then turns.] Father! What do you say? Is that true? HEGAN. [Crushed.] I don't know, my dear. GRIMES. God Almighty! And this is Jim Hegan! [To LAURA.] Where'd you get onto these ideas, ma'am? LAURA. [In a low voice.] I think, Mr. Grimes, it might be best if you did not ask me to discuss this question. Our points of view are too different. GRIMES. [Shrugs his shoulders.] As you please, ma'am. But you needn't mind me... I ain't easy to offend. And I'm only trying to understand you.