Dear man, I didn't do it for you. I wasn't brave enough. I should have given in. I don't mind confessing that I started to do it for you, but it soon grew so terrible that I was afraid. It grew so terrible that had it been for you alone I should have surrendered. But out of the terror of it all I caught a wider vision, and all that you said last night rose before me. And I knew that you were right. I thought of all the people, and of the little children. I did it for them, after all. You speak for them. I stole the papers so that you could use them in speaking for the people. Don't you see, dear man? (_Changing to angry recollection._) Do you know what they cost me? Do you know what was done to me, to-day, this morning, in my father's house? I was shamed, humiliated, as I would never have dreamed it possible. Do you know what they did to me? The servants were called in, and by them I was stripped before everybody--my family, Hubbard, the Reverend Mr. Rutland, the secretary, everybody. {Knox} (_Stunned._) Stripped--you? {Margaret} Every stitch. My father commanded it {Knox} (_Suddenly visioning the scene._) My God! {Margaret} (_Recovering herself and speaking cynically, with a laugh at his shocked face._) No; it was not so bad as that. There was a screen. (_Knox appears somewhat relieved._) But it fell down in the midst of the struggle. {Knox} But in heaven's name why was this done to you? {Margaret} Searching for the lost letters. They knew I had taken them. (_Speaking gravely._) So you see, I have earned those papers. And I have earned the right to say what shall be done with them. I shall give them to you, and you will use them in your speech this afternoon. {Knox} I don't want them. {Margaret} (_Going to bell and ringing._) Oh yes you do. They are more valuable right now than anything else in the world. {Knox} (_Shaking his head._) I wish it hadn't happened. {Margaret} (_Returning to him, pausing by his chair, and caressing his hair._) What? {Knox} This morning--your recovering the letters. I had adjusted myself to their loss, and the loss of the fight, and the finding of--you. (_He reaches up, draws down her hand, and presses it to his lips._) So--give them back to your father. (_Margaret draws quickly away from him._) (_Enter Man-servant at right rear._) {Margaret} Send Linda to me. (_Exit Man-servant._) {Knox} What are you doing? {Margaret} (_Sitting down._) I am going to send Linda for them. They are still in my father's house, hidden, of all places, behind Lincoln's portrait. He will guard them safely, I know. {Knox} (_With fervor._) Margaret! Margaret! Don't send for them. Let them go. I don't want them. (_Rising and going toward her impulsively._) (_Margaret rises and retreats, holding him off._) I want you--you--you. (_He catches her hand and kisses it. She tears it away from him, but tenderly._) {Margaret}