WHITE.  No.  Perhaps it will be easier this way. (He hesitates, then goes to phone as she stands expectant.) Yes.  Yes.  Long Distance?  Washington? (Her lips repeat the word.) Yes.  This is William White.  Hello.  Yes.  Is this the Secretary speaking?  Oh, I appreciate the honor of having you confirm it personally.  Senator Bough is chairman?  At his request?  Ah, yes; war makes strange bedfellows.  Yes.  The passport and credentials?  Oh, I’ll be ready.  Yes.  Good-bye.

(He hangs up the receiver and looks at her.)

HILDA.  You, too!

WHITE.  I’ve been trying to tell you these last weeks; but I couldn’t somehow.

HILDA.  You were ashamed?

WHITE.  No, dear; only I knew it would hurt you.

HILDA.  I’m not thinking of myself but of you.  You are going to be part of this war?

WHITE.  I’m going to do what I can to help finish it.

HILDA.  By compromising with the beliefs of a lifetime?

WHITE.  No, dear; not that.  I’ve accepted the appointment on this commission because I’m going to accept facts.

HILDA.  Have the facts of war changed, or is it you?

WHITE.  Neither has changed; but I’m going to act differently.  I’m going to be part of it.  Yes.  I’m going to help direct the current.

HILDA.  I can’t believe what I am hearing.  Is it you, William White, speaking?  You who, for twenty years, have stood against all war!

WHITE.  Yes.

HILDA.  And now, when the test comes, you are going to lend yourself to it!  You of all men!

WHITE.  Hilda, dear; I didn’t expect you to accept it easily; but I think I can make you see if you will let me.

HILDA (poignantly).  If I will let you!  Why, Will, I must understand; I must.

WHITE.  Perhaps it will be difficult at first—­with your standards.

HILDA.  But my standards were yours, Will.  You gave them to me.  You taught me.  You took a young girl who loved you.  You showed her the truth, and she followed you and has followed you gladly through hard years of struggle and poverty because of those ideals.  And now you talk of my standards!  Will, don’t you see, I must understand?

WHITE.  Dear, standards are relative things; they differ with circumstance.

HILDA.  Have your ideals only been old clothes you change to suit the weather?

WHITE.  It’s the end we must keep in mind.  I haven’t changed or compromised one bit in that.  I’m working in changed conditions, that’s all; working with all my heart to do away with all war.

HILDA.  By fighting one?

WHITE (with eloquence).  Yes.  Because it is necessary.  I’ve come to see we can’t argue war out of the world with words.  We’ve got to beat it out of the world.  It can’t be done with our hands lifted up in prayer; it can only be done with iron hands crushing it down.  War is the mood of the world.  Well, I’m going to fight in my fashion.  And when it is over, I’m going to keep on fighting; for the next war will be greater than this.  It will be economic revolution.  It will be the war of capital and labor.  And I mean to be ready.