Well? (_Her eyes turn toward the laboratory_) MAGNUS He is in apparently. (_To the others_) We are all agreed upon the matter? JUDGE CRITTY (_hastily_) I can answer for Professor Vanillity and myself. FANNY And I for mother! MRS. FELIX I think it is a shame, Fanny. MAGNUS Apparently Tromper answers for me. JUDGE CRITTY I think we can convince the young man where his duty lies— MRS. FELIX I wish I could convince the lot of you where _your_ duty lies! Can’t you see that all this comes from not giving women the vote long ago? FANNY Mother, dear!—exercise your monomania at any other time than this! MAGNUS (_to Mrs. Felix, amused_) Really? MRS. FELIX Really! When a woman is allowed to figure out her duty to the nation, she’ll want her husband to give _it_ his best, instead of giving his best to _her_. FANNY What nonsense, mother! A man’s first duty is to his home— MRS. FELIX Give them the vote, and they’ll sacrifice the home to make the nation. MAGNUS (_seated, crossing legs_) Ladies, proceed! This is strangely interesting to me. MRS. FELIX It will be more than interesting to you when we win, John Magnus. Why do you control the money-market of America? Because women, having no interest in business, urge their men to make as much money as they can. They can do this only by taking advantage of other people’s weakness; not realizing that, if they do this to weaker people, stronger men will do it to them. And so it’s dog eat dog, and as you’re the biggest one in the kennel you eat them all— FANNY Mother! Are you losing _all_ your manners? MAGNUS Thanks for making me a _big_ dog anyhow, Loo—But how would women voting change all this? FANNY Oh, mother!—please! MRS. FELIX Why, as soon as women realize that modern laws of business, applied to the home, would make every man a thief and every woman a prostitute, they’ll stop urging their husbands to make more than the next man— MAGNUS Loo! I hereby subscribe any reasonable sum you say to the cause of suffrage—thereby planning my own downfall!— MRS. FELIX Or showing your contempt!—Well! you’re amusing anyhow, John Magnus. If somebody could make you take things seriously, you’d be as great a man as your subsidized newspapers _say_ you are— JUDGE CRITTY Really, my dear Mrs. Felix;—even the _hysterical_ newspapers admit Mr. Magnus is a great man! MAGNUS My dear press-agent—we are in the presence of my friends, not of the public. You may consider yourself off duty. MRS. FELIX No man can be selfish and great. Mr. Magnus only amuses himself by playing a game with the public. But how he can be amused by winning games from his inferiors, I don’t know. That’s the kink in his greatness. MAGNUS I have just begun to realize their inferiority, Loo. That’s why the game begins to bore me— MRS. FELIX Start teaching them instead of beating them, then. MAGNUS Anything to get back my interest in life! How shall I begin? MRS. FELIX