Here you stays! Don't you dare move! If you do you c'n whine like a whipped purp an' you'll never be gettin' so much as a penny outa me no more--that's what you won't! Bruno, you're goin' ways you hadn't ought to. BRUNO Aw, what d'you think? Is I goin' to be a dam' fool? D'you think I ain' goin' when I gets a good livin' offa Hulda? [_He pulls out a dirty card-case._] Not so much as a measly pawn ticket has I got. Tell me what you want an' then lemme go! MRS. JOHN What I wants? Of you? What're you good for anyhow? You ain't good for nothin' excep' for your sister who ain't right in her head to feel sorry for you, you loafer an' scamp! BRUNO Maybe you _ain'_ right in your head sometimes! MRS. JOHN Our father, he used to say when you was no more'n five an' six years old an' used to do rowdy things, that we couldn't never be proud o' you an' that I might as well let you go hang. An' my husband what's a reel honest decent man ... why, you can't be seen alongside of a good man like him. BRUNO Sure, I knows all that there, Jette. But things ain' that easy to straighten out. I knows all right I was born with a kind o' a twist in my back, even if nobody don't see it. No, I wasn't born in no castle. Well, I gotta do what I c'n do with my twist. All right. What d'you want? 'Tain't for the rats you're keepin' me. You wanta hush up somethin' wi' that whore! MRS. JOHN [_Shaking her hand under BRUNO'S nose._] You give away one word o' this an' I'll kill you, I'll make a corpse o' you! BRUNO Well now, looka here! I'm goin', y'understan'? [_He mounts the stairs._] Maybe someday I'll be droppin' into good luck without knowin' it. _He disappears through the trap-door, MRS. JOHN hurriedly blows out the lamp and taps her way to the door of the library. She enters it but does--not wholly close the door behind her.--The noise that BRUNO actually heard was that of a key being turned in a rusty keyhole. A light step is now heard approaching the door. For a moment the street noises of Berlin as well as the yelling of children in the outer halls had been audible. Strains of a hurdy-gurdy from the yard.--WALBURGA HASSENREUTER enters with hesitating and embarrassed steps. The girl is not yet sixteen and is pretty and innocent of appearance. Sunshade, light-coloured summer dress, not coming below the ankle._ WALBURGA [_Halts, listens, then says nervously:_] Papa!--Isn't any one up here yet? Papa! Papa! [_She listens long and intently and then says:_] Why, what an odour of coal oil there is here! [_She finds matches, lights one, is about to light the lamp and burns her fingers against the hot chimney._] Ouch! Why, dear me! Who is here? [_She has cried out and is about to run away._ _MRS. JOHN reappears._ MRS. JOHN Well, Miss Walburga, who's goin' to go an' kick up a row like that! You c'n be reel quiet. 'Tain't nobody but me! WALBURGA Dear me, but I've had an awful fright, Mrs. John. MRS. JOHN