[In a moment the door opens, PRESCOTT stands in the doorway, with his back turned, speaking to the BISHOP.]

PRESCOTT.  I’ll be with you in a minute, James. [Enters and shuts the door.]

LUCILLE.  Oh, Mr. Prescott!  You had a good trip, I hope?

PRESCOTT.  No.  It wasn’t very good.

LUCILLE.  Oh, I’m sorry!  And it spoiled your weekend, too.

PRESCOTT.  Spoiled everything.  Well, it can’t be helped.  Anything need my attention here?

LUCILLE.  It’s been very quiet.  Your wife telephoned.  She said she’d be at the Colony Club, and would you ’phone her there.

PRESCOTT.  All right.  Is that all?

LUCILLE.  That’s about all.

PRESCOTT.  How long has Bishop Holden been waiting?

LUCILLE.  About an hour.

PRESCOTT.  What does he want?

LUCILLE.  He didn’t say.

PRESCOTT.  Why didn’t you tell him I couldn’t see him today?

LUCILLE.  He said he’d go to your house if he couldn’t see you here, so I ...

PRESCOTT.  Can’t I get any protection around here?  You could have said I was out of town for the weekend.

LUCILLE.  I didn’t think of that.

PRESCOTT.  You never think of anything.—­Send him in.

[LUCILLE goes out; BISHOP enters.]

BISHOP.  Seeing you brings back old times.

PRESCOTT.  I’m glad to see you, James.  Although [Looks at watch.]
If you’d let me know I might have kept myself free....

BISHOP.  I won’t keep you long.

PRESCOTT.  Sit down.

BISHOP.  Stanley, I’m in trouble.  I’ve come to you for help.

PRESCOTT. [Wary.] I needn’t tell you that anything in my power ...

BISHOP.  You’re a business man.

PRESCOTT.  When there is business.

BISHOP.  You believe in our American system of government.

PRESCOTT.  Certainly, certainly.  The system we did have.

BISHOP.  So do I. Sincerely.  I have the deepest, profoundest faith in our democracy.

PRESCOTT. [Impatient with the other’s irrelevancy.] The world has not yet found anything better.

BISHOP.  But unless we do something it won’t last beyond our generation.

PRESCOTT.  Nonsense.

BISHOP.  Social unrest is growing.  Young people, in their enforced idleness, are turning away from all that we have taught them.

PRESCOTT. [Annoyed.] Come, James.  That isn’t what you came to see me about.

BISHOP.  It is.

PRESCOTT.  You have been reading sensational papers.  Of course a depression gives the radicals a chance to spread their doctrines.  But there isn’t any cause for worry.  Prosperity is always a sure cure for radicalism.  And things are picking up.

BISHOP.  You are probably under the common delusion that all radicals are wild-eyed foreigners.