e. They didn't charge. They
accepted it as a proven fact that I was guilty. That you were
my--lover.

{Knox}

On that man's testimony?

{Margaret}

He had two witnesses in an adjoining room.

{Knox}

(_Relieved._) All the better. They can testify to nothing more than
the truth, and the truth is not serious. In our case it is good,
for we renounced each other.

{Margaret}

You don't know these men. It is easy to guess that they have been
well trained. They would swear to anything.

(_She laughs bitterly._) They are my father's men, you know, his
paid sleuth-hounds.

{Knox}

(_Collapsing in chair, holding head in hands, and groaning._) How
you must have suffered. What a terrible time, what a terrible
time! I can see it all--before everybody--your nearest and
dearest. Ah, I could not understand, after our parting last
night, why you should have sent for me today. But now I know.

{Margaret}

No you don't, at all.

{Knox}

(_Ignoring her and again beginning to pace back and forth,
thinking on his feet._) What's the difference? I am ruined
politically. Their scheme has worked out only too well. Gifford
warned me, you warned me, everybody warned me. But I was a fool,
blind--with a fool's folly. There is nothing left but you now.

(_He pauses, and the light of a new thought irradiates his face._)
Do you know, Margaret, I thank God it has happened as it
has. What if my usefulness is destroyed? There will be other
men--other leaders. I but make way for another. The cause of the
people can never be lost. And though I am driven from the fight,
I am driven to you. We are driven together. It is fate. Again I
thank God for it.

(_He approaches her and tries to clasp her in his arms, but she
steps back._)

{Margaret}

(_Smiling sadly._) Ah, now you flame. The tables are reversed. Last
night it was I. We are fortunate that we choose diverse times for
our moods--else there would be naught but one sweet melting mad
disaster.

{Knox}

But it is not as if we had done this thing deliberately and
selfishly. We have renounced. We have struggled against it until
we were beaten. And now we are driven together, not by our doing
but Fate's. After this affair this morning there is nothing
for you but to come to me. And as for me, despite my best, I am
finished. I have failed. As I told you, the papers are stolen.
There will be no speech this afternoon.

{Margaret}

(_Quietly._) Yes there will.

{Knox}

Im