Augusta.  You must see him.

Minnie.  Oh, I’ll see him now.  That was what hurt me most, lying to him about why I was leaving—­letting him think I was sick of working with him.

Augusta.  Minnie, I’m willing to say that I was mistaken about you.  You may have been unwise, but you never did anything wrong.  Isn’t it so?

Minnie.  Why do you think that now?  What changed you?  Just because I might have helped to keep Mr. Pindar from being shot by a crazy man—­that didn’t change you, did it?

Augusta.  I was mistaken!

Minnie.  If you thought I was bad yesterday, I’m bad today.

Augusta.  A bad woman couldn’t have done what you did just now.

Minnie.  Don’t you believe it, Mrs. Pindar.  I knew a woman in Newcastle —­but there’s no use going into that, I guess.  There’s worse kinds of badness than what you call bad.

Augusta.  I—­I can’t discuss it.  But I want to be just.  I’m convinced that I did you a wrong—­and I’m sorry.  Won’t you believe me?

Minnie.  But you’ll never forgive me—­even if I hadn’t done what you thought—­on account of what happened with George.

Augusta.  I—­I’ll try.

Minnie.  No, don’t try—­forgiveness doesn’t come that way, Mrs. Pindar.  (With sudden acuteness.) It was on account of George, not Dr. Jonathan, that you wanted to get me out of Foxon Falls.

Augusta.  I repeat—­I shouldn’t have asked you to go.  Isn’t that enough?

Minnie.  I told you not to worry about me and George.  I ran away from him once—­I guess I won’t have to do it again.

Augusta.  You—­you ran away from him?

Minnie.  From the church, too, and from the Bible class and from you, and from the shops.  But I’m free now, there isn’t any danger of my going wrong,—­I know what I can do, I’ve learned my job—­Dr. Jonathan’s taught me.  You needn’t have me on your conscience, either.  I’ll go across and see if I can help Dr. Jonathan take care of that poor wreck, Prag.  Life’s been too tough for him—­

Augusta (starting forward to detain her).  Wait a moment, Minnie,—­tell me how you happened to come back, to be here so—­providentially.

Minnie.  There wasn’t anything providential about it.  I took the six o’clock train to Newcastle this morning.  Not that I had any notion of staying there.  I ran into Prag at the station.  I nursed his wife, you know—­and he started in to tell me how he was coming up to Foxon Falls to shoot Mr. Pindar because he’d closed down the works rather than recognize the union.  I knew that Prag was just about crazy enough to do it, because I’ve heard Dr. Jonathan talk about the mental disease he’s got.  That was about ten, and the train for Foxon Falls was leaving in a few minutes.  I ran into the booth to phone Dr. Jonathan, but the storm had begun down there, and I couldn’t get a connection.  So I caught the train, and when it pulled in here I saw Pray jump out of the smoking car and start to run.  I couldn’t run as fast as he could, and I’d only got to the other side of the Common when I saw him walk into the house.