esire.

{Knox}

(_Protestingly._) Margaret! It is not fair!

{Margaret}

I love you--and--you?

{Knox}

(_Fervently and reverently._) I love you.

{Margaret}

Then listen. I have told you of my girlhood and my dreams. I
wanted to do what you are so nobly doing. And I did nothing. I
could do nothing. I was not permitted. Always was I compelled
to hold myself in check. It was to do what you are doing, that I
married. And that, too, failed me. My husband became a henchman
of the Interests, my own father's tool for the perpetuation of
the evils against which I desired to fight.

(_She pauses._) It has been a long fight, and I have been very
tired, for always did I confront failure. My husband--I did not
love him. I never loved him. I sold myself for the Cause, and the
cause profited nothing. (_Pause._) Often, I have lost faith--faith
in everything, in God and man, in the hope of any righteousness
ever prevailing. But again and again, by what you are doing, have
you awakened me. I came to-night with no thought of self. I came
to warn you, to help the good work on. I remained--thank God!--I
remained to love you--and to be loved by you. I suddenly found
myself, looking at you, very weary. I wanted you--you, more than
anything in the world.

(_She holds out her arms._) Come to me. I want you--now.

(_Knox, in an ecstacy, comes to her. He seats himself on the broad
arm of the chair and is drawn into her arms._)

{Knox}

But I have been tired at times. I was very tired to-night--and
you came. And now I am glad, only glad.

{Margaret}

I have been wanton to-night. I confess it. I am proud of it.
But it was not--professional. It was the first time in my life.
Almost do I regret--almost do I regret that I did not do it
sooner--it has been crowned with such success. You have held me
in your arms--your arms. Oh, you will never know what that first
embrace meant to me. I am not a clod. I am not iron nor stone. I
am a woman--a warm, breathing woman--.

(_She rises, and draws him to his feet._)

Kiss me, my dear lord and lover. Kiss me. (_They embrace._)

{Knox}

(_Passionately, looking about him wildly as if in search of
something._) What shall we do?

(_Suddenly releasing her and sinking back in his own chair almost
in collapse._) No. It cannot be. It is impossible. Oh, why could
we not have met long ago? We would have worked together. What a
comradeship it would have been.

{Margaret}

But it is not