.] Father! A knock at the door;
they start.

GRIMES. [Enters.] Oh! Beg pardon!

HEGAN. Come in.

LAURA. [Starting up.] No!

HEGAN. Come in! You must know it!

GRIMES. What is it?

HEGAN. Shut the door! Grimes, the game is up!

GRIMES. How d'ye mean?

HEGAN. We've been betrayed. Somebody knows all about the Court
decision... about what passed between you and Porter, and between you
and me!

GRIMES. The hell you say!

HEGAN. We're threatened with exposure!

GRIMES. Who is it?

HEGAN. I don't know.

GRIMES. But, then...

HEGAN. My daughter tells me. But she is not at liberty to give the
names.

GRIMES. Well, I'll be damned! [He stares from HEGAN to LAURA; then comes
and sits, very deliberately, where he can gaze at them. A long pause;
then, nodding toward them.] What's her game?

HEGAN. [Weakly.] She will tell you.

GRIMES. [Looking at her.] Well?

LAURA. I am here to plead with my father to turn back from this
wickedness.

GRIMES. [Stares.] And do what, ma'am?

LAURA. Quit Wall Street, and devote himself to some useful work.

GRIMES. [After a pause.] And if he won't?

LAURA. I have told him he must choose between his present career and his
daughter's love.

GRIMES. [Gazes at LAURA, then in front of him; slowly shakes his head.]
I can't make out our young people. When I was a boy, young women looked
up to their parents. What's your father done to you, that you should
turn against him?

LAURA. I have not turned against him, Mr. Grimes.

GRIMES. [Indicating HEGAN, who sits in an attitude of despair.] Look at
him!

[A pause.]

LAURA. I am pleading with him for his own good... to give up this cruel
struggle...

GRIMES. To turn tail and run from his enemies?

LAURA. It is of my duty to the public that I am thinking, Mr. Grimes.

GRIMES. You owe no duty to this world higher than your duty to your
father.

LAURA. You think that?

GRIMES. I think it.

LAURA. [Hesitates a moment, then turns.] Father! What do you say? Is
that true?

HEGAN. [Crushed.] I don't know, my dear.

GRIMES. God Almighty! And this is Jim Hegan! [To LAURA.] Where'd you get
onto these ideas, ma'am?

LAURA. [In a low voice.] I think, Mr. Grimes, it might be best if you
did not ask me to discuss this question. Our points of view are too
different.

GRIMES. [Shrugs his shoulders.] As you please, ma'am. But you needn't
mind me... I ain't easy to offend. And I'm only trying to understand
you.

LAURA. [After