u would deny her the opportunity to make something
of her cleverness because in your opinion; she has broken the Seventh
Commandment. Is that it?

AUGUSTA. I can't listen to you when you talk in this way.

DR. JONATHAN. But you listen every Sunday to Moses--if it was Moses?
--when he talks in this way. You have made up your mind, haven't you, that
Minnie has broken the Commandment?

AUGUSTA. I'm not a fool, Jonathan.

DR. JONATHAN. You are what is called a good woman. Have you proof that
Minnie is what you would call a bad one?

AUGUSTA. Has she ever denied it? And you heard her when she stood up in
this room and spoke of her life in Newcastle.

DR. JONATHAN. But no court of law would convict her on that.

AUGUSTA. And she had an affair with George. Oh, I can't talk about it!

DR. JONATHAN. I'm afraid that George will wish to talk about it, when he
comes back.

AUGUSTA, She's been corresponding with George--scheming behind my back.

DR. JONATHAN. Are you sure of that?

AUGUSTA. She confessed to me that she had had letters from him.

DR. JONATHAN. And that she'd written letters in return?

AUGUSTA. What right have you to catechize me, Jonathan?

DR. JONATHAN. The same right, Augusta, that you have to catechize
Minnie. Only I wish to discover the truth, and apparently you do not.
She left me a letter, too, in which she said, "Don't try to find me--I
wouldn't come back if you did. Mrs. Pindar was right about me, after
all--I had to break loose again." Now, Augusta, I'd like to know what
you make of that?

AUGUSTA. It's pretty plain, isn't it?

DR. JONATHAN. If the girl were really "bad," as you insist, would she
say a thing like that?

AUGUSTA. I'm afraid I'm not an authority on Minnie's kind.

DR. JONATHAN. Well, I am. The only motive which could have induced her
to leave my laboratory and Foxon Falls--her father--is what you would
call a Christian motive.

AUGUSTA. What do you mean?

DR. JONATHAN. An unselfish motive. She went because she thought she
could help someone by going.

AUGUSTA. Why--do you discuss this with me?

DR. JONATHAN. Because I've come to the conclusion that you know
something about Minnie's departure, Augusta.

AUGUSTA (again on the verge of tears). Well, then, I do. I am
responsible for her going--I'm not ashamed of it. Her remaining here was
an affront to all right thinking people. I appealed to her, and she had
the decency to leave.

DR. JONATHAN. Decency is a mild wo