FullReads

MRS. AUSTIN.

Answer me, please.

AUSTIN.

Why, my dear . . .

MRS. AUSTIN.

Did you tell him what was in it?

AUSTIN.

But, my dear, it wasn’t my business to tell him.

MRS. AUSTIN.

Oh!

AUSTIN.

I was representing the company.

MRS. AUSTIN, I see.

AUSTIN.

It was his place to see what was in it.

MRS. AUSTIN.

Harvey! This man with one eye burned out, and not yet over the accident?

AUSTIN.

My dear, you don’t understand . . .

JIM.

[Wildly.] You didn’t leave me to find out for myself. You lied to me!

MRS. AUSTIN.

At least you permitted him to be misled. You did not tell him the honest truth about the paper, and what would be the effect if he signed it.

AUSTIN.

My dear, you do not understand. I could not have done that. I was the representative of the interests of the company.

MRS. AUSTIN.

And that is the sort of work you do for them?

AUSTIN.

That is the sort of work that has to be done. I cannot help it, much as I would like to . . .

MRS. AUSTIN.

[Wildly.] You have done that sort of thing before. And you will do it again!

AUSTIN.

My dear . . .

MRS. AUSTIN.

And you take money for it! You bring that money home to me! And you never told me how you got it! You make me sharer in your guilt!

AUSTIN.

Helen!

MRS. AUSTIN.

This was how you earned your promotion! This was what you came to me and boasted about! This was what we married on. This money . . . blood money . . . that you get for cheating this helpless laborer out of his rights . . . out of everything he had in the world!

AUSTIN.

My dear, you are out of your mind. You do not understand business.

MRS. AUSTIN.

I understand it all . . . a child could understand! It is only you . . . the rising young lawyer . . . that doesn’t understand! Harvey, Harvey! Do you know what you have done to this man . . . what you and I together have done to him? We have wrecked his life! We have driven him to hell! We have murdered his wife and his two children. We have turned him into a tramp and a criminal. We have climbed to success on top of him . . . we have made our fortune out of his blood! This house . . . this furniture . . . these pictures . . . all this beauty and comfort . . . all this we have coined out of his tears and agony . . . out of the lives of his sick wife and his two little babies! And you have done this for me . . . you have made me the cause of it . . . you have put the guilt of it upon my young life . . . a thing that I must carry through the world with me until I die!

AUSTIN.

[Starting toward her.] Helen!

MRS. AUSTIN.

No! Don’t touch me! Speak to HIM! It is with him you have to do! What have you to say to him? Don’t think about me!

AUSTIN.

My dear, be reasonable!

MRS. AUSTIN.

What have you to say to him? That is what I want to know! Harvey! Don’t you understand it is your character that is up for judgment?

AUSTIN.

It can’t be as bad as you say.

MRS. AUSTIN.

Why can’t it? Find out.