I’m not a judge of such things, Ryan. But people who know about art say that it’s very good indeed. RYAN Is it a good likeness? MAXWELL It’s not supposed to be a portrait; it’s a sort of a fancy statue. It represents the “Emancipation of Woman”--woman freed, you know. RYAN Freed from what? MAXWELL Why, from overwork, and excessive child-bearing and all that sort of thing, you know. RYAN Well, that lady’s freed from child-bearing, all right. She’s perfectly safe on that score. (_He goes back to his chair and pours out another drink._) But now let’s get back to your friends’ proposition. I’m to get a day job and come home nights--is that right? MAXWELL That’s right. RYAN The children are taken off my wife’s hands, and she doesn’t have to do any more cooking or washing or anything, hey? MAXWELL That’s it, Ryan. RYAN And the place we’d live would be pretty much like this apartment, would it? MAXWELL Just as comfortable, at any rate. RYAN My wife would have no work to do; I’d work in the daytime and come home nights--there’d be no kids to take care of--it would be pretty much like the life that you and your wife have, wouldn’t it, Mr. Johnson? MAXWELL Ah--why, yes, Ryan, pretty much the same. What do you think of the proposition? RYAN Well, I’ll tell you. Of course I wouldn’t like to have the children go away--though they are a lot of trouble--but I suppose they’d be better taken care of than we could do, so, if that was all there was to it, I’d say go ahead. And it’d be all right for me, too, if I was a bachelor. But it’s on account of my wife that I feel I’ve got to say, “Excuse me!” MAXWELL Why, you don’t begrudge your wife a little rest, do you, Ryan? RYAN Would I begrudge the old woman a little rest? Yes, by God, I would, if a little rest meant having nothing to do all day except sit around and talk to her friends and run around town. It’s just on that account that I say nix to your whole proposition. Now you think I’m a slave driver, I suppose. Well, I ain’t, Mr. Johnson, but I’ve lived with a woman thirteen years, and what I’m telling you I didn’t get out of no books--it’s facts!