Thornton (turning to table, and laying down pistol). Away: you'll get nothing here!
Charity (throws off cloak). Don't be too sure of that, Robert Thornton.
Thornton (turns quickly). Charity Goodall! (Stub comes down softly, takes pistol, goes up, crosses stage, and hides behind bar.) I beg your pardon, Mrs. Goodall. This is indeed a surprise!
Charity. And yet you have been expecting me; dreading the hour when you and I should meet face to face.
Thornton. This is hardly the place for a woman who would guard her good name from scandal.
Charity. You forget I am a woman above suspicion: that I have won a good name, by daring to enter such dens as yours, on errands of mercy.
Thornton. Ah! indeed! what errand of mercy brings the saintly Charity Goodall into my humble saloon?
Charity. Ah, you confess ownership! The spider of the gilded web! You, who, under the guise of a gentleman, lured my husband from an honorable life: you, who, with flattering promises of honorable wealth, tricked a brave lad to his ruin. Your humble saloon! You sneer, and yet you tremble. Confess all: confess you are a villain and a cheat!
Thornton. I will not listen to you. Be warned in time: at any moment, a rude throng may burst upon you. You are liable to insult from which I could not protect you.
Charity. Fear not for me: my mission is my protection. Alone, I have walked into the worst dens, without fear, without insult. With the most abandoned, no hand is raised against one who comes to rescue and deliver. Robert Thornton, listen to me: day and night I have sought, with ready helpers, Harry Maynard. To-night I have tracked him here.