AUGUSTA, She's been corresponding with George—scheming behind my back.
DR. JONATHAN. Are you sure of that?
AUGUSTA. She confessed to me that she had had letters from him.
DR. JONATHAN. And that she'd written letters in return?
AUGUSTA. What right have you to catechize me, Jonathan?
DR. JONATHAN. The same right, Augusta, that you have to catechize Minnie. Only I wish to discover the truth, and apparently you do not. She left me a letter, too, in which she said, “Don't try to find me—I wouldn't come back if you did. Mrs. Pindar was right about me, after all—I had to break loose again.” Now, Augusta, I'd like to know what you make of that?
AUGUSTA. It's pretty plain, isn't it?
DR. JONATHAN. If the girl were really “bad,” as you insist, would she say a thing like that?
AUGUSTA. I'm afraid I'm not an authority on Minnie's kind.
DR. JONATHAN. Well, I am. The only motive which could have induced her to leave my laboratory and Foxon Falls—her father—is what you would call a Christian motive.