[_Impatiently._] I thought you wanted to talk business. JAMES FORD. Right’s right, and wrong’s wrong. You can’t get over that. I couldn’t rest for a moment if I thought any act of mine wasn’t above board. It’s no credit of mine, I’m just made that way. GEORGE WINTER. [_As if he were talking to a child._] Come, James, we’ve been good friends for twenty years. JAMES FORD. [_In a low voice._] This afternoon, when I found out what you’d done--well, I could have cried. [_There is a real anguish in his tone which startles_ GEORGE WINTER. _For the first time he realizes that the affair is serious. He begins to get frightened._ GEORGE WINTER. [_Quickly, hoarsely._] But you don’t mean seriously.... JAMES FORD. [_Desperately._] How can I make you understand? You don’t seem to see that now I know what you’ve done I’m just filled with horror and loathing. If you’ve done this God knows what else you haven’t done. I don’t want to be hard on you. I must do my duty. I’m a director of the company. I put all my friends in it. I put my sister into it. And this mine. Is it true what that paper says? For all I know that’s a swindle too. GEORGE WINTER. [_With sudden anxiety._] You’re not going to push me down now that I’m almost at the top of the tree? I’ve got the world at my feet. If you’ll only give me a month I can put everything straight. JAMES FORD. Five minutes ago it was a fortnight. I don’t believe it. These things don’t come right. When a man has crossed the line that separates honesty from dishonesty he never gets back. GEORGE WINTER. If you give me away now it’ll mean a general smash. The only chance of saving things is to go on. The money’s gone. You won’t get it back by giving me up to the police. JAMES FORD. I must take my chance of that. After all, if I don’t speak it makes me a party to the crime. It can be proved that I went to the bank to-day. GEORGE WINTER. Now you’re saying something I can understand. If I show you by plain figures that I can put everything right if you’ll only give me time.... JAMES FORD. I tell you I can’t. I’ve got my wife to think of, and my boys. It’s theft, it’s the money of orphans and widows that you’ve taken, and there’s only one course open to me. GEORGE WINTER. What are you going to do? JAMES FORD. [_Brokenly._] My God, what can I do? I trusted you as I would have trusted my sons. GEORGE WINTER. Out with it! JAMES FORD. I must--I must consult the Chief Constable. GEORGE WINTER. You wouldn’t do that? You don’t seriously mean that you’d go to the police? It’s madness. It’s so impractical. It’s stupid. JAMES FORD. I could never respect myself again if I.... It’s a matter between my conscience and myself.... Oh, George, why have you put me in this position? GEORGE WINTER.