SCANTLEBURY. Then I shall not listen to you. I shall not listen! It's painful to me.
[He covers his ears.]
WANKLIN. None of us are opposed to a settlement, except your Father.
EDGAR. I'm certain that if the shareholders knew——
WANKLIN. I don't think you'll find their imaginations are any better than ours. Because a woman happens to have a weak heart——
EDGAR. A struggle like this finds out the weak spots in everybody. Any child knows that. If it hadn't been for this cut-throat policy, she need n't have died like this; and there would n't be all this misery that any one who is n't a fool can see is going on.
[Throughout the foregoing ANTHONY has eyed his son; he now moves as though to rise, but stops as EDGAR speaks again.]
I don't defend the men, or myself, or anybody.
WANKLIN. You may have to! A coroner's jury of disinterested sympathisers may say some very nasty things. We mustn't lose sight of our position.
SCANTLEBURY. [Without uncovering his ears.] Coroner's jury! No, no, it's not a case for that!