time comes what will he do?

HILDA (_calmly_). He will do it with courage.

WHITE (_referring to her brother's letter_). Either prison or
acceptance!

HILDA. I would rather have my son in prison than have him do what
he felt was wrong. Wouldn't you?

WHITE (_evasively_). We won't have to face that problem for two
years.

HILDA. And when it comes--if he falters--I'll give him these
notes of that wonderful speech you made at the International
Conference in 1910. (_Picking it up_) I was looking through it only
this morning.

WHITE (_troubled_). Oh, that speech.

HILDA (_glancing through it with enthusiasm_). "All wars are
imperialistic in origin. Do away with overseas investments, trade
routes, private control of ammunition factories, secret
diplomacy--"

WHITE. Don't you see that's all dead wood?

HILDA (_not heeding him_). This part gave me new strength when I
thought of Wallace. (_Reading with eloquence_) "War will stop when
young men put Internationalism above Nationality, the law of God
above the dictates of statesmen, the law of love above the law of
hate, the law of self-sacrifice above the law of profit. There
must be no boundaries in man's thought. Let the young men of the
world once throw down their arms, let them once refuse to point
their guns at human hearts, and all the boundaries of the world
will melt away and peace will find a resting-place in the hearts
of men!"

WHITE (_taking it from her_). And I made you believe it! What silly
prophets we radicals were. (_He tears it up._) Mere scraps of
paper, dear; scraps of paper, now.

HILDA. But it was the truth; it still is the truth.

WHITE. Hilda, there's something I want to talk over very, very
seriously with you. I've been putting it off.

HILDA. Yes, dear? (_The outer door is heard to bang._) Listen:
wasn't that the front door?

WHITE. Perhaps it's the maid?

HILDA (_a bit nervously_). No: she's upstairs. No one rang. Please
see.

WHITE (_smiling_). Now don't worry! It can't possibly be the Secret
Service.

HILDA. One never knows in war times what to expect. I sometimes
feel I am in a foreign country.

(WHITE _goes slowly to the door in back and opens it._ WALLACE,
_their son, with valise in hand, is standing there, as if he had
hesitated to enter._

_He is a fine clean-cut young fellow, with his father's physical
endowment and his mother's spiritual intensity. The essential
note he strikes is that of honesty. It is apparent he