ss? 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 you 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 w