Well, you know the way men is. That's caused a lot o' talk. I was thinkin' o' "Bruno," but he won't have it! HASSENREUTER Surely Bruno isn't a bad name. JOHN That may be. I ain't sayin' but what Bruno is a good enough name. I don't want to give no opinion about that. MRS. JOHN Why don't you say as how I has a brother what's twelve years younger'n me an' what don't always do just right? But that's only 'cause there's so much temptation. That boy's a good boy. Only you won't believe it. JOHN [_Turns red with sudden rage._] Jette ... you know what a cross that feller was to us! What d'you want? You want our little feller to be the namesake of a man what's--I can't help sayin' it--what's under police soopervision? HASSENREUTER Then, for heaven's sake, get him some other patron saint. JOHN Lord protect me from sich! I tried to take an interest in Bruno! I got him a job in a machine-shop an' didn't get nothin' outa it but annoyance an' disgrace! God forbid that he should come aroun' an' have anythin' to do with this little feller o' mine. [_He clenches his fist._] If that was to happen, Jette, I wouldn't be responsible for myself!! MRS. JOHN You needn't go on, Paul! Bruno ain't comin'. But I c'n tell you this much for certain, that my brother was good an' helpful to me in this hard time. JOHN Why didn't you send for me? MRS. JOHN I didn't want no man aroun' that was scared. HASSENREUTER Aren't you an admirer of Bismarck, John? JOHN [_Scratching the back of his head._] I can't say as to that exackly. My brothers in the masons' union, though, they ain't admirers o' him. HASSENREUTER Then you have no German hearts in your bodies! Otto is what I called my eldest son who is in the imperial navy! And believe me [_pointing to the infant_] this coming generation will well know what it owes to that mighty hero, the great forger of German unity! [_He takes the tin boiler of the apparatus which WALBURGA has unpacked into his hands and lifts it high up._] Now then: the whole business of this apparatus is mere child's play. This frame which holds all the bottles--each bottle to be filled two-thirds with water and one-third with milk--is sunk into the boiler which is filled with boiling water. By keeping the water at the boiling-point for an hour and a half in this manner, the content--of the bottles becomes free of germs. Chemists call this process sterilisation. JOHN Jette, at the master-mason's house, the milk that's fed to the twins is sterilised too. _The pupils of HASSENREUTER, KAeFERSTEIN and DR. KEGEL, two young men between twenty and twenty-five years of age, have knocked at the door and then opened it._ HASSENREUTER [_Noticing his pupils._] Patience, gentlemen. I'll be with you directly. At the moment I am busying myself with the problems of the nourishment of infants and the care of children. KAeFERSTEIN