en keeping
company with no young man--that I know. If she wasn't working with the
doctor on that discovery she'd be home with me.

AUGUSTA. I'm sorry for you, Timothy, but I don't see what I can do.

TIMOTHY. I minded that you were talking to her yesterday in the
lab'rat'ry, before the telegram came about Mr. George.

AUGUSTA. Well?

TIMOTHY. It was just a hope, ma'am, catching at a straw-like.

AUGUSTA (tightening her lips). I repeat that I'm sorry for you, Timothy.
I have no idea where she has gone.

TIMOTHY (looking at her fixedly. She pauses in her knitting and returns
his look). Very well, ma'am--there's no need of my bothering you.
You've heard nothing more of Mr. George?

AUGUSTA (with sudden tears). They're sending him home.

TIMOTHY. And now that ye're getting him back, ma'am, ye might think with
a little more charity of her that belongs to me--the only one I'd have
left.

(TIMOTHY goes out, lower right. AUGUSTA is blinded by tears. She
lets fall her ball of wool. DR. JONATHAN picks it up.)

AUGUSTA. I try to be fair in my judgments, and true to my convictions,
but what Minnie has done cannot be condoned.

DR. JONATHAN (sitting down beside AUGUSTA) And what has Minnie done,
Augusta?

AUGUSTA. You ask me that? I try hard to give you credit, Jonathan, for
not knowing the ways of the world--but it's always been difficult to
believe that Minnie Farrell had become well--a bad woman.

DR. JONATHAN. A bad woman. I gather, then, that you don't believe in
the Christian doctrines of repentance and regeneration.

AUGUSTA (bridling). The leopard doesn't change his spots. And has she
shown any sign of repentance? Has she come to me and asked my pardon for
the way in which she treated me? Has she gone to church and asked God's
forgiveness? But I know you are an agnostic, Jonathan,--it grieves me.
I couldn't expect you to see the necessity of that.

DR. JONATHAN. If it hadn't been for Minnie, I shouldn't have been able
to achieve a discovery that may prove of value to our suffering soldiers,
as well as to injured operatives in factories. In spite of the news of
her brother's death, Minnie worked all afternoon and evening. It was
midnight when we made the successful test, after eight months of
experiment.

AUGUSTA. I hope the discovery may be valuable. It seems to me that
there is too much science in these days and too little religion. I've
never denied that the girl is clever.

DR. JONATHAN. But yo