That's jus' what I'll do! Jus' that! I'll call in anybody as wants to know--outa the street, offa the hall, the carpenter outa the yard, the boys an' the girls what takes their confirmation lessons--I'll call 'em all an' I'll tell 'em what a woman got into on account o' her fool love for her brother! HASSENREUTER And so that good-looking girl who laid claim to the child is actually dead to-day? JOHN Maybe she was good-lookin'. I don' know nothin' about that, whether she was pretty or ugly. But it's a fac' that she's lyin' in the morgue this day. MRS. JOHN I c'n tell you what she was! She was a common, low wench! She had dealin's with a Tyrolese feller that didn't want to have nothin' more to do with her an' she had a child by him. An' she'd ha' liked to kill that child while it was in her own womb. Then she came to fetch it with that Kielbacke what's been in prison eighteen months as a professional baby-killer. Whether she had any dealin's with Bruno, I don' know! Maybe so an' maybe not! An' anyhow, I don' see how it concerns me what Bruno's gone an' done. HASSENREUTER So you _did_ know the girl in question, Mrs. John? MRS. JOHN How so? I didn't know her a bit! I'm only sayin' what everybody as knows says about that there girl. HASSENREUTER You're an honourable woman: you're an honourable man, Mr. John. This matter with your wayward brother is terrible enough as a fact, but it ought not seriously to undermine your married life. Stay honest and ... JOHN Not a bit of it! I don't stay with such people; not anywhere near 'em. [_He brings his fist down on the table, taps at the walls, stamps on the floor._] Listen to the crackin'! Listen, how the plasterin' comes rumblin' down behind the wall-paper! Everything rotten here, everythin's worm eaten! Everythin's undermined by varmint an' by rats an' by mice. [_He see-saws on a loose plank in the floor._] Every thin' totters! Any minute the whole business might crash down into the cellar.--[_He opens the door._] Selma! Selma! I'm goin' to pull outa here before the whole thing just falls together into a heap o' rubbish! MRS. JOHN What do you want o' Selma? JOHN Selma is goin' to take that child an' I'll go with 'em on the train an' take it out to my sister. MRS. JOHN You'll hear from me if you try that! Oh, you jus' try it! JOHN Is my child to be brought up in surroundin's like this, an' maybe some day be driven over the roofs with Bruno an' maybe end in the penitentiary? MRS. JOHN [_Cries out at him._] That ain't your child at all! Y'understan'? JOHN 'S that so? Well, we'll see if an honest man can't be master o' his own child what's got a mother that's gone crazy an' is in the hands of a crowd o' murderers. I'd like to see who's in the right there an' who's the stronger. Selma! MRS. JOHN