May I be permitted to ax somethin' too? HASSENREUTER If you please. PAULINE Jus' let him ax. We don't has to worry. SCHIERKE [_To MRS. KIELBACKE._] What's your name? MRS. KIELBACKE I'm Mrs. Kielbacke. SCHIERKE You're connected with the society for raisin' children, eh? Where do you live? MRS. KIELBACKE Linien street number nine. SCHIERKE Is that your child that you have there? MRS. KIELBACKE That's Miss Pipercarcka her child. SCHIERKE [_To PAULINE._] An' your name? PAULINE Paula Pipercarcka from Skorzenin. SCHIERKE This woman asserts that the child is yours. Do you assert that too? PAULINE Sergeant, I has to ax for your protection because suspicions is cast on me an' I'm innercent. The gentleman from the city did come to me. An' I did get my child outa the room o' Mrs. John what I had it in board with ... SCHIERKE [_With a searching look._] Yes? Maybe it was the door across the way where the restaurant keeper's widow Knobbe lives. Nobody knows what you're up to with that child nor who sent you an' bribed you. You ain't got a good conscience! You took the child an' slipped up here with it while its rightful mother, the widow Knobbe, what it's been stolen from, is huntin' all over the stairs an' halls for it an' while a detective is standin' acrost the way. PAULINE I don't care about no detective. I'm ... HASSENREUTER You are refuted, my good girl. Can't you comprehend that? First you say that Mrs. John has no child. Next you say--kindly attend to me--that you had taken your child, which has been passing for Mrs. John's, out of the latter's room. However; all of us here happen to know Mrs. John's child and the one you have here is another. Is that clear to you? Hence your assertion cannot, in any circumstances, be a correct one!--And now, Schierke, you would do me a favour if you would conduct these ladies out so that I can continue giving my lesson. SCHIERKE All right, but if I does that we'll get into that Knobbe crowd. Because her child has been stolen. PAULINE It ain't me that done it; it's Mrs. John. SCHIERKE That's all right. [_Continuing his account to HASSENREUTER._] And they says that the child has blue blood in it on its father's side. So Mrs. Knobbe thinks as how it's a plot of enemies 'cause they grudges her the alimony in some quarters an' a gentleman's eddication for the kid. [_Someone is beating at the door with fists._] That's the Knobbe woman. There she comes now! HASSENREUTER Mr. Schierke, you are responsible to me. If these people trespass on my premises and I suffer any damages thereby, I'll complain to the chief of police. I know Mr. Maddei very well. Don't be afraid, my dear boys. You are my witnesses. SCHIERKE [_At the door._] You stay out there! You don't get in here! _A small mob howls outside of the door._ PAULINE They c'n holler all they wants to but they can't get my child. HASSENREUTER