our children, ma'am; and we
looked to them to stand by us. Once, when I was older, my enemies tried
to do me... they charged me with a murder that I never done, ma'am. But
d'ye think my old father ever stopped to ask if I done it or not, ma'am?
Not much. "Don't mention that, Bob, my boy," says he... "it's all part
of the fight, an' we're wid yer." [A pause.] I looked about me at the
world, ma'am, and I found it was full of all sorts of pleasant things,
that I'd never had, and never stood a chance of havin'. They were for
the rich... the people on top. And they looked on with scorn... I was
poor and I was low, and I wasn't fit for anything. And so I set to
climb, ma'am. I shouldered my way up. I met men that fought me; I fought
them back, and I won out. That's the sort of man I am.

LAURA. I see. A selfish man, bent upon power at any price! A brutal man,
profiting by the weakness of others! An unscrupulous man, trading upon
fear and greed! A man who has stopped at no evil to gain his purpose!

GRIMES. I am what the game has made me.

LAURA. Not so! Not so! Many another man has been born to a fate like
yours, and has fought his way up from the pit... to be a tower of
strength for goodness and service, an honor to his people and himself.

GRIMES. I've not met any such, ma'am.

LAURA. No; you've not sought for them. You did not need them in your
business. The men you needed were the thugs and the criminals, who could
stuff ballot-boxes for you... the dive-keepers and the vice-sellers, who
would contribute to your campaign funds! And you have dealt with them...
you have built up the power they gave you into a mighty engine of
corruption and wrong! And you are master of it... you use it to
wring tribute from high and low! Selling immunity to dive-keepers and
betraying helpless young girls! Naming legislators and judges, and
receiving bribes to corrupt the highest Court in the State.

HEGAN. Laura...

LAURA. Father, I did not seek this discussion! He challenged me... and
he shall hear the truth! For all these months the thing that has been
driving me to desperation has been the knowledge that my father was the
business associate and ally of a master of infamy like Robert Grimes!

GRIMES. Thanks, ma'am! And so now he's to break with me!

[A knock at the door.]

ANDREWS. [Enters, centre.] Mr. Hegan, these orders for your brokers must
be signed.

HEGAN. I won't sign them!

ANDREWS. Sir?

HEGAN. Never mind them.