The Man has just come up with the line of argument that the Child is the Crimson Character personified, which explains her red gown.
Well said! I feared the woman had no better thought than to make a mountebank of her child!
The great thing about this line is that a page ago, the Woman said of her Child: See ye not, she is the scarlet letter! We ignored it entirely. But when the Man says it, my character is struck by his intellect, his perspicuity, his oratorical skill. I’m kidding a little, but this is actually an important point about rhetoric, which is the person speaking is an important part of persuasion. Kairos, if you want the Greek term. The argument coming from the mouth of the Man is the same logical argument, but this time, we are listening.
As for the acting part—Nearly-Legendary Director corrected my original emphasis on the beginning, which was a hearty compliment to be a ruminating wonderment that the Man came through in a pinch. This allows me to pull a skeptical face for a little bit more of his oratory, which does just a little bit more to prolong the tension in the scene. Because after all, once the prosecution has been won over to the defense, the judge’s verdict is not really in doubt.
So: My character is for the well-saidness of the previous line, against the woman, against mountebanks, and against the child. But also against his previous fears, that is, the whole rest of the sentence is presented as counterfactual, a retelling of what is not. Which doesn’t make it a minor-key speech, oddly enough, as I am happy about being corrected. It is directed to the Governmental Authority, although also to the Man (to tell him he is on the right track); what I want from the Governmental Authority is now no longer a verdict one way or another but a stamp of approval on my protégé.
I don’t, it occurs to me, end the sentence on a rising inflection; I pause just a trifle before choosing the word mountebank and then subside to the end of the sentence. The end of the sentence, in fact, remains largely unheard because the Man has already begun again on the next flight of words. So that’s all right.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.