al
test tubes in turn, holding theme to the light. Suddenly her eye
falls on GEORGE'S letter, which ASHER has left open on the bench
with the envelope beside it. MINNIE Slowly reaches out and picks it
up, and then holds it to her lips . . . She still has the letter
in her hand, gazing at it, when AUGUSTA PINDAR enters, right.)

AUGUSTA. Oh, I thought Mr. Pindar was here!

MINNIE. Perhaps he's been here--I don't know. I just came in. (She
hesitates a second, then goes to the bench and lays the letter down.)

AUGUSTA. He must have been here,--he told me he was coming to talk with
Dr. Pindar.

(She approaches the bench and glances at the letter.)

Isn't that a letter from my son?

MINNIE (a little defiantly, yet almost in tears). I guess it is.

AUGUSTA. It was written to you?

MINNIE. No.

AUGUSTA. Then what were you doing with it?

MINNIE. I just--picked it up. You think I was reading it? Well, I
wouldn't.

AUGUSTA. Then how did you know it was written by my son?

(MINNIE is silent.)

You must be familiar with his handwriting. I think I'd better take it.
(She folds it up and puts it in the envelope.) Does George write to you?

MINNIE. I've had letters from him.

AUGUSTA. Since he went to France?

MINNIE. Yes.

AUGUSTA (after a pause). I've never approved of Dr. Findar employing you
here. I warned him against you--I told him that you would betray his
kindness as you betrayed mine, but he wouldn't listen to me. I told him
that a girl who was capable of drawing my son into an intrigue while she
was a member of the church and of my Bible class, a girl who had the
career you had in Newcastle, couldn't become a decent and trustworthy
woman. The very fact that you had the audacity to come back to Foxon
Falls and impose on Dr. Pindar's simplicity, proves it.

MINNIE. You know all about me, Mrs. Pindar.

AUGUSTA. I wasn't born yesterday.

MINNIE. Oh, ladies like you, Christian ladies, are hard! They won't
believe nothing good of anybody--only the bad. You've always been
sheltered, you've always had everything you'd want, and you come and
judge us working girls. You'd drive me out of the only real happiness
I ever had, being here with a man like Dr. Jonathan, doing work it's a
pleasure to do--a pleasure every minute!--work that may do good to
thousands of people, to the soldiers over there--maybe to George, for all
you know! (She burst into tears.) You can't understand--how could you?