ame... to drop it utterly! To stop selling stocks and manipulating
markets; to stop buying politicians and franchises... to sell out
everything... to withdraw. I want you to do it now... today.. . this
very hour!

HEGAN. But, my dear...

LAURA. I want you to come with me, and help me to find happiness again,
by doing some good in the world. I want you to use your power and your
talents to help people, instead of to destroy them.

HEGAN. My child! That is something very easy to talk about, but not so
easy to do!

LAURA. We will work together, and find ways to do it.

HEGAN. It seems possible, from your point of view... with your noble
ideals, and your sheltered life...

LAURA. My sheltered life! That is just what I can no longer endure! That
I should have ease and comfort, while others suffer... that my father
should take part in this mad struggle for money and power, in order
to give me a sheltered life! I must make it impossible for that to
continue! I must make you understand that all your money is powerless to
bring me happiness... that it is poisoning my life as well as your own!

HEGAN. [Gravely.] Laura, I have tried to protect you... that is the
natural instinct of a father... to keep evil things from his daughter's
knowledge. If I have told you untruths, as you say, that has been the
one reason. But since you will not have it so... since you must face the
facts of the world...

LAURA. I Must!

HEGAN. Very well, then... you shall face them. You tell me to give up
this case... to change back the Court's decision, so that the public
may reap the advantage. Do you realize that the public has nothing to do
with this suit?... That it is a covert attack upon me by an unscrupulous
enemy?

LAURA. You mean Murdock?

HEGAN. Murdock. You know something of his career, perhaps... something
of his private life, too. And if I should turn back, as you ask, the
public would gain nothing... he would be the only one to profit. He
would raid my securities; he would throw my companies into bankruptcy;
he would draw my associates away from me... in the end, he would take my
place in the traction field. Is that what you wish to bring about?

LAURA. It is not that that I am thinking of. It is the corrupting of the
Court...

HEGAN. The Court! Do you know why Grimes and I had to do what we did?

LAURA. No.

HEGAN. And yet you have judged me! What would you say if I told you that
we had information that one of the judges