BISHOP.  Are you studying Russian, too?

KEN.  Martin’s been teaching me a little.  I wish I had your linguistic preparation for it.

BISHOP.  I learned Greek so I could read the Gospels in the original tongue.

TIPPY.  That’s why they’re learning Russian.

BISHOP.  The Gospels in Russian?

TIPPY.  Saint Marx, Saint Engels, Saint Lenin and Saint Stalin.

BISHOP.  But—­if you mean Karl Marx, he wrote in German.

TIPPY.  Hitler had him translated into Russian so the Germans couldn’t read him.

BISHOP.  You’re a very witty young man.  Your sense of humor will save you from any dangerous doctrine.

MARTIN.  His sense of humor saves him from anything serious.

BISHOP.  While I don’t approve of a flippant attitude toward life, it is far better than accepting dangerous and destructive doctrines—­such as Russian Communism.

MARTIN.  Dangerous to world capitalism—­but constructive of a new civilization.

BISHOP.  Young man, may I ask if you are American born?

MARTIN.  I was born on a Dakota farm.  My father was an American kulak.  An insurance company expropriated him.

LAURA.  Bishop Holden didn’t come to get into arguments with you boys.

BISHOP.  Another time, perhaps.  I think I could convince you that you’re following a dangerous delusion.

MARTIN.  Thanks, Laura.  You’re right.  I’ll run along.

TIPPY.  I’ll go with you.  I’ve a bit of shopping I ought to do.

MARTIN.  I’ll get your hat. [Goes to bedroom.]

BISHOP.  And how is your business progressing, Timothy?  Kenneth wrote me about it.  Don’t be ashamed of it.  Don’t be ashamed of honest labor, young man.—­You are boarding dogs, I believe.

TIPPY.  No.  I have no place for that.  I only wash them.

BISHOP.  You wash them and they pay you?

TIPPY.  Yes sir.  That is, I wash the dogs, and the people pay me.

BISHOP.  Ah yes.  I understand.

[MARTIN comes out with TIPPY’S hat.  Picks up his own.]

TIPPY.  Clean dogs for clean people.

MARTIN.  Lap dogs for kept women.—­People are desperate and destitute.—­And Tippy washes dogs for a living!

BISHOP.  It’s a sad world.  It’s true that some have too much, and many have too little....

MARTIN.  But we mustn’t protest.  The meek shall inherit the earth!

BISHOP.  And the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

MARTIN.  I respect any man for his convictions.  But it seems to me, sir, if you want to save the church when the revolution comes to America, you had better see to it that the class sympathy of the church agrees with the class sympathy of the man who founded it.

TIPPY. [Hurriedly.] Good-bye, sir. [TIPPY and MARTIN go.]

[LAURA quickly gathers up the tea things and puts them on a tray and goes to kitchen.  In the following scene she is on and off.  The BISHOP walks about, troubled and silent.  He looks at posters, picks up the Russian books and looks at them.]