[_Attempting to pacify the girl once more._] Pauline, this business was all settled between us. Why d'you want to go an' burden yourself with the child what's my child now an' is in the best hands possible? What d'you want to do with it? Why don't you go to your intended? You two'll have somethin' better to do than listen to a child cryin' an' takin' all the care an' trouble he needs! PAULINE No, that ain't the way it is! He's gotta marry me now! They all says so--Mrs. Keilbacke, when I had to take treatment, she said so. They says I'm not to give in; he has to marry me. An' the registrar he advised me too. That's what he said, an' he was mad, too, when I told him how I sneaked up into a loft to have my baby! He cried out loud that I wasn't to let up! Poor, maltreated crittur--that's what he called me an' he put his hand in his pocket an' gave me three crowns! All right. So we needn't quarrel no more, Mrs. John. I jus' come anyhow to tell you to be at home to-morrow afternoon at five o'clock. An' why? Because to-morrow an official examiner'll come to look after things here. I don't has to worry myself with you no more.... MRS. JOHN [_Moveless and shocked beyond expression._] What? You went an' give notice at the public registry? PAULINE O' course? Does I want to go to gaol? MRS. JOHN An' what did you tell the registrar? PAULINE Nothin' but that I give birth to a boy. An' I was so ashamed! Oh my God, I got red all over! I thought I'd just have to go through the floor. MRS. JOHN Is that so? Well, if you was so ashamed why did you go an' give notice? PAULINE 'Cause my landlady an' Mrs. Kielbacke, too, what took me there, didn't give me no rest. MRS. JOHN H-m. So they knows it now at the public registry? PAULINE Yes; they had to know, Mrs. John! MRS. JOHN Didn't I tell you over an' over again? PAULINE You gotta give notice o' that! D'you want me to be put in gaol for a investergation? MRS. JOHN I told you as how I'd give notice. PAULINE I axed the registrar right off. Nobody hadn't been there. MRS. JOHN An' what did you say exackly? PAULINE That his name was to be Aloysius Theophil an' that he was boardin' with you. MRS. JOHN An' to-morrow an officer'll be comin' in. PAULINE He's a gentlemen from the guardian's office. What's the matter with that? Why don't you keep still an' act sensible. You scared me most to death a while ago! MRS. JOHN [_As if absent-minded._] That's right. There ain't nothin' to be, done about that now. An' there ain't so much to that, after all, maybe. PAULINE All right. An' now c'n I see my child, Mrs. John? MRS. JOHN Not to-day. Wait till to-morrow, Pauline. PAULINE Why not to-day? MRS. JOHN Because no good'd come of it this day. Wait till to-morrow, five o'clock in the afternoon. PAULINE That's it. My landlady says it was written that way, that a gentleman from the city'll be here to-morrow afternoon five o'clock. MRS. JOHN