and I don't doubt you can be a
pretty hard one, too, at times; but you're _just_--that's the point
now--you're _JUST_--

MISS GODESBY. [_Interrupting._] Exactly! I'm just, an eye for an eye!
Sterling is a thief, let him get the deserts of one!

[_She sits on the bench determinedly._

WARDEN. But you can't look at only one side! You can't shut your eyes to
his wife's suffering, too, and she doesn't deserve it! Neither does her
boy deserve to share his disgrace. [_He sits beside her._] Why, you have
it in your power to handicap that boy through his whole life by
publishing his father a criminal; or you can give that boy a fair show
to prove himself more his _mother's son_ than his father's, and to live
an honest--who knows--perhaps a noble life!

MISS GODESBY. I refuse to accept such a responsibility. Ryder--

WARDEN. [_Rises, interrupting her._] Ryder's word is given to be silent.

MISS GODESBY. Well, that's _his_ lookout.

WARDEN. You'll have many a heart wrench, I'll bet you! You'll have to
run across the results of the harm you do to Mrs. Sterling and Richard
day in and day out, year after year! I don't believe you realize what it
means! Why, I know _you_ can't bear to see a _dog_ suffer! I met you
last week on the street carrying a mangy, crippled brute of a little dog
in your arms, afraid lest he'd get into the hands of the
vivisectionists, and yet here you'll let a boy and his mother--

MISS GODESBY. [_Interrupts him, struggling against a tiny emotion which
he has stirred._] Stop Stop! I don't want you working on my feelings
that way.

[_She rises and turns from him_

WARDEN. [_Follows her._] I'm only knocking at the door of your heart.
And now because it's opened just a tiny way, you want to shut it in my
face again. Will you leave this woman's name fit for her to use? _Won't_
you make that boy's life worth living to him?

MISS GODESBY. [_After a moment's pause, looks straight into_ WARDEN'S
_face._] I'll tell you what I'll do. Get me some security, some sort of
indorsement of Sterling's note--

WARDEN. If the man's only alive!

MISS GODESBY. And I'll hold my tongue.

WARDEN. How long will you give me?

MISS GODESBY. Oh, come, I can't have any monkey business! You must get
me my security to-day.

WARDEN. To-day?

MISS GODESBY. Yes.

WARDEN. But--

MISS GODESBY. That's my last word.

GODESBY. Stick to that, Julia!

WARDEN. I shan't try to persuade her against that. Will you leave your
s