ensity.] No one! No one!

MONTAGUE. I see.

LAURA. So it was with you... and with our friendship. I knew that
you had broken it off for such reasons. I knew that there was nothing
personal... it was nothing that I had done...

MONTAGUE. No! Surely not!

LAURA. [Gazes about nervously.] And then the other night... you told
me you were investigating the traction companies of New York.. . their
connection with politics, and so on. Ever since then I have felt that
you were the one person I must talk with. Don't you see?

MONTAGUE. Yes; I see.

LAURA. I have sought for some one who will tell me the truth. Will you?

MONTAGUE. [In a low voice.] You must realize what you are asking of me,
Miss Hegan.

LAURA. I have not brought you here without realizing that. You must help
me!

MONTAGUE. Very well. I will do what I can.

LAURA. [Leaning forward.] I wish to know about my father. I wish to know
to what extent he is involved in these evils that you speak of.

MONTAGUE. Your father is in the game, and he has played it the way the
game is played.

LAURA. Has he been better than the others, or worse?

MONTAGUE. About the same, Miss Hegan.

LAURA. He has been more successful than they.

MONTAGUE. He has been very successful.

LAURA. You were concerned in some important deal with my father, were
you not?

MONTAGUE. I was.

LAURA. Then you withdrew. Was that because there was something wrong in
it?

MONTAGUE. It was, Miss Hegan.

LAURA. There were corrupt things done?

MONTAGUE. There were many kinds of corrupt things done.

LAURA. And was my father responsible for them?

MONTAGUE. Yes.

LAURA. Directly?

MONTAGUE. Yes; directly.

LAURA. Then my father is a bad man? MONTAGUE. [After a pause.] Your
father finds himself in the midst of an evil system. He is the victim of
conditions which he did not create.

LAURA. Ah, now you are trying to spare me!

MONTAGUE. No. I should say that to any one. I am at war with the
system... not with individuals. It is the old story of hating the sin
and loving the sinner. Your father's rivals are just as reckless as
he take Murdock, for instance, the man who is behind this Grand Avenue
Railroad matter. It is hard for a woman to understand that situation.

LAURA. I can understand some things very clearly. I go down into the
slums and I see all that welter of misery. I see the forces of evil that
exist there, defiant and hateful... the saloons and the gambling-houses,