) There's the arch-anarch over there,
the dragon you are trying to slay.

(_Knox looks at Starkweather and is plainly perplexed._) The man
who handles all the life insurance funds, who controls more
strings of banks and trust companies than all the Rothschilds
a hundred times over--the merger of iron and steel and coal and
shipping and all the other things--the man who blocks your child
labor bill and all the rest of the remedial legislation you
advocate. In short, my father.

{Knox}

(_Looking intently at Starkweather._) I should have recognized him
from his photographs. But why do you say such things?

{Margaret}

Because they are true.

(_He remains silent._) Now, aren't they? (_She laughs._) Oh, you
don't need to answer. You know the truth, the whole bitter truth.
This _is_ a den of thieves. There is Mr. Hubbard over there, for
instance, the trusty journalist lieutenant of the corporations.

{Knox}

(_With an expression of disgust._) I know him. It was he that wrote
the Standard Oil side of the story, after having abused Standard
Oil for years in the pseudo-muck-raking magazines. He made them
come up to his price, that was all. He's the star writer on
_Cartwright's_, now, since that magazine changed its policy
and became subsidizedly reactionary. I know him--a thoroughly
dishonest man. Truly am I Ali Baba, and truly I wonder why I am
here.

{Margaret}

You are here, sir, because I like you to come.

{Knox}

We do have much in common, you and I.

{Margaret}

The future.

{Knox}

(_Gravely, looking at her with shining eyes._) I sometimes fear for
more immediate reasons than that.

(_Margaret looks at him in alarm, and at the same time betrays
pleasure in what he has said._) For you.

{Margaret}

(_Hastily._) Don't look at me that way. Your eyes are flashing.
Some one might see and misunderstand.

{Knox}

(_In confusion, awkwardly._) I was unaware that I--that I was
looking at you----in any way that----

{Margaret}

I'll tell you why you are here. Because I sent for you.

{Knox}

(_With signs of ardor._) I would come whenever you sent for me, and
go wherever you might send me.

{Margaret}

(_Reprovingly._)

Please, please---- It was about that speech. I have been hearing
about it from everybody--rumblings and mutterings and dire
prophecies. I know how busy you are, and I ought not to have
asked you to come. But there was no other way, and I was so
anxious.

{Knox}

(_Pl