anhood healthy and wholesome, clean, noble, and
alive. Did I do my part well, through him the results would be
achieved. Through him would the work of the world be done
in making the world healthier and happier for all the human
creatures in it. I played the mother's part. That is why I left
the pitiful little charities of the church and devoted myself
to settlement work and tenement house reform, established my
kindergartens, and worked for the little men and women who come
so blindly and to whom the future belongs to make or mar.

{Knox}

You are magnificent. I know, now, why I come when you bid me
come.

{Margaret}

And then you came. You were magnificent. You were my knight of
the windmills, tilting against all power and privilege, striving
to wrest the future from the future and realize it here in the
present, now. I was sure you would be destroyed. Yet you are
still here and fighting valiantly. And that speech of yours
to-morrow--

{Chalmers}

(_Who has approached, bearing Dolores Ortega's cup._) Yes, that
speech. How do you do, Mr. Knox.

(_They shake hands._) A cup of tea, Madge. For Mrs. Ortega. Two
lumps, please.

(_Margaret prepares the cup of tea._) Everybody is excited over
that speech. You are going to give us particular fits, to-morrow,
I understand.

{Knox}

(_Smiling._) Really, no more than is deserved.

{Chalmers}

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

{Knox}

Precisely.

(_Receiving back cup of tea from Margaret._)

{Chalmers}

Believe me, we are not so black as we're painted. There are two
sides to this question. Like you, we do our best to do what is
right. And we hope, we still hope, to win you over to our side.

(_Knox shakes his head with a quiet smile._)

{Margaret}

Oh, Tom, be truthful. You don't hope anything of the sort. You
know you are hoping to destroy him.

{Chalmers}

(_Smiling grimly._) That is what usually happens to those who are
not won over.

(_Preparing to depart with cup of tea; speaking to Knox._) You
might accomplish much good, were you with us. Against us you
accomplish nothing, absolutely nothing.

(_Returns to Dolores Ortega._)

{Margaret}

(_Hurriedly._) You see. That is why I was anxious--why I sent
for you. Even Tom admits that they who are not won over are
destroyed. This speech is a crucial event. You know how rigidly
they rule the House and gag men like you. It is they, and they
alone, who have given you oppo