deal frankly with each other. I know that you did
not want to come. I know that you have tried to put an end to our
friendship.

MONTAGUE. [Hesitates.] Miss Hegan, let me explain my position.

LAURA. I think I understand it already. You have found evil conditions
which you wish to oppose, and you were afraid that our friendship might
stand in the way.

MONTAGUE. [In a low voice.] Miss Hegan, I came to New York an entire
stranger two years ago, and my brother introduced me to his rich
friends. By one of them I was asked to take charge of a law case. It was
a case of very great importance, which served to give me an opening into
the inner life of the city. I discovered that, in their blind struggle
for power, our great capitalists had lost all sense of the difference
between honesty and crime. I found that trust funds were being abused...
that courts and legislatures were being corrupted... the very financial
stability of the country was being wrecked. The thing shocked me to the
bottom of my soul, and I set to work to give the public some light
on the situation. Then, what happened, Miss Hegan? My newly made rich
friends cut me a deal; they began to circulate vile slanders about me...
they insulted me openly, on more than one occasion. So, don't you see?

LAURA. Yes. I see. But could you not have trusted a friendship such as
ours?

MONTAGUE. I did not dare.

LAURA. You saw that you had to fight my father, and you thought that I
would blindly take his side.

MONTAGUE. [Hesitating.] I... I couldn't suppose...

LAURA. Listen. You have told me your situation; now imagine mine.
Imagine a girl brought up in luxury, with a father whom she loves
very dearly, and who loves her more than any one else in the world.
Everything is done to make her happy... to keep her contented and
peaceful. But as she grows up, she reads and listens... and, little by
little, it dawns upon her that her father is one of the leaders in this
terrible struggle that you have spoken of. She hears about wrongdoing;
she is told that her father's enemies have slandered him. At first,
perhaps, she believes that. But time goes on... she sees suffering and
oppression... she begins to realize a little of cause and effect. She
wants to help, she wants to do right, but there is no way for her to
know. She goes to one person after another, and no one will deal frankly
with her. No one will tell her the truth... absolutely no one! [Leaning
forward with int