You shut the door a minute an' come in! An' now tell me, girl, what's all this that happened in this room about your little dead brother and the strange girl? SELMA [_Who has, obviously, a bad conscience, gradually comes forward watchfully. She now answers glibly and volubly._] I pushed the perambulator over into the room here. Your wife wasn't in an' so I thinks that maybe here there'd be more quiet, 'cause my little brother, you know, he was sick anyhow an' cryin' all the time. An' then, all of a sudden, a gentleman an' a lady an' another woman all comes in here, an' they picked the little feller right outa the carridge an' put clean clothes on him an' carried him off. JOHN An' then the lady said as how it was her child an' how she'd given it in board with mother, with my old woman? SELMA [_Lies._] Naw, not a bit. I'd know about that if it was so. JOHN [_Bangs his fist on the table._] Well, damn it all, it'd be a idjit's trick to have said that. SPITTA Permit me, but she did say that. I take it you're talking of the incident with the two women that took place upstairs at manager Hassenreuter's? JOHN Did you see that? Was you there when the Knobbe woman an' the other one was disputin' about the little crittur? SPITTA Yes, certainly. I was present throughout. SELMA I tell you all I knows. An' I couldn't say no more if officer Schierke or the tall police lieutenant hisself was to examine me for hours an' hours. I don' know nothin'. An' what I don' know I can't tell. JOHN The lieutenant examined you? SELMA They wanted to take mama to the lock-up because people went an' lied. They said that our little baby was starved to death. JOHN Aha! 's that so? Well, Selma, s'pose you go over there an' cook a little coffee. _SELMA goes over to the stove where she prepares coffee for JOHN. JOHN himself goes up to his working table, takes up the compass. Then he draws lines, using a piece of rail as a ruler._ SPITTA [_Conquering his diffidence and shame._] I really hoped to meet your wife here, Mr. John. Someone told me that your wife has been in the habit of lending out small sums to students against security. And I am somewhat embarrassed. JOHN Maybe that's so. But that's mother's business, Mr. Spitta. SPITTA To be quite frank with you, if I don't get hold of some money by to-night, the few books and other possessions I have will be attached for rent by my landlady and I'll be put into the street. JOHN I thought your father was a preacher. SPITTA So he is. But for that very reason and because I don't want to become a preacher, too, he and I had a terrible quarrel last night. I won't ever accept a farthing from him any more. JOHN [_Busy over his drawing._] Then it'll serve him right if you starve or break your neck. SPITTA Men like myself don't starve, Mr. John. But if, by any chance, I were to go to the dogs--I shouldn't greatly care. JOHN