You would condone this--this adultery. You, who have just said that I was morally unfit to have my own boy, will permit me to retain him. I had never dreamed, father, that your own immorality would descend to such vile depths. Believing this shameful thing of me, you will forgive and forget it all for the sake of a few scraps of paper that stand for money, that stand for a license to rob and steal from the people. Is this your morality--money? {Starkweather} I have my morality. It is not money. I am only a steward; but so highly do I conceive the duties of my stewardship-- {Margaret} (_Interrupting, bitterly._) The thefts and lies and all common little sins like adulteries are not to stand in the way of your high duties--that the end hallows the means. {Starkweather} (_Shortly._) Precisely. {Margaret} (_To Rutland._) There is Jesuitism, Mr. Rutland. I would suggest that you, as my father's spiritual adviser-- {Starkweather} Enough of this foolery. Give me the papers. {Margaret} I haven't them. {Starkweather} What's to be done, Hubbard? {Hubbard} She has them. She has as much as acknowledged that they are not elsewhere in the room. She has not been out of the room. There is nothing to do but search her. {Starkweather} Nothing else remains to be done. Dobleman, and you, Hubbard, take her behind the screen. Strip her. Recover the papers. (_Dobleman is in a proper funk, but Hubbard betrays no unwillingness._) {Chalmers} No; that I shall not permit. Hubbard shall have nothing to do with this. {Margaret} It is too late, Tom. You have stood by and allowed me to be stripped of everything else. A few clothes do not matter now. If I am to be stripped and searched by men, Mr. Hubbard will serve as well as any other man. Perhaps Mr. Rutland would like to lend his assistance. {Connie} Oh, Madge! Give them up. (_Margaret shakes her head._) (_To Starkweather._) Then let me search her, father. {Starkweather} You are too willing. I don't want volunteers. I doubt that I can trust you any more than your sister. {Connie} Let mother, then. {Starkweather} (_Sneering._) Margaret could smuggle a steamer-trunk of documents past her. {Connie} But not the men, father! Not the men! {Starkweather} Why not? She has shown herself dead to all shame. (_Imperatively._) Dobleman! {Dobleman} (_Thinking his time has come, and almost dying._) Y-y-yes, sir. {Starkweather} Call in the servants. {Mrs. Starkweather} (_Crying out in protest._) Anthony! {Starkweather} Would you prefer her to be searched by the men? {Mrs. Starkweather} (_Subsiding._) I shall die, I shall die. I know I shall die. {Starkweather} Dobleman. Ring for the servants. (_Dobleman, who has been hesitant, crosses to desk and pushes button, then returns toward door._) Send in the maids and the housekeeper. (_Linda, blindly desiring to be of some assistance, starts impulsively toward Margaret._) Stand over there--in the corner. (_Indicating right front._)