Stop! I'll interfere now! I have the right to do so at this point! Whomever the little boy may belong to--so much the worse if its mother has been murdered--it was born on my premises! Forward, Spitta! Fight for it, my boy! Here your propensities come properly into play! Go on! Careful! That's it! Bravo! Be as careful as though it were the Christ child! Bravo! That's it! You yourself are at liberty, Mrs. John. We don't restrain you. You must only leave us the little boy. _MRS. JOHN rushes madly out._ SCHIERKE Here you stays! MRS. HASSENREUTER The woman is desperate. Stop her! Hold her! JOHN [_With a sudden change._] Look out for mother! Mother! Stop her! Catch hold o' her! Mother! Mother! _SELMA, SCHIERKE and JOHN hurry after MRS. JOHN. SPITTA, HASSENREUTER, MRS. HASSENREUTER and WALBURGA busy themselves about the child, which lies on the table._ HASSENREUTER [_Carefully wrapping the infant._] The horrible woman may be desperate for all I care! But for that reason she needn't destroy the child. MRS. HASSENREUTER But, dearest papa, isn't it quite evident that the woman has pinned her love, silly to the point of madness as it is, to this very infant? Thoughtless and harsh words may actually drive the unhappy creature to her death. HASSENREUTER I used no harsh words, mama. SPITTA An unmistakable feeling assures me that the child has only now lost its mother. QUAQUARO That's true. Its father ain't aroun' an' don' want to have nothin' to do with it. He got married yesterday to the widow of a man who owned a merry-go-roun'! Its mother was no better'n she should be! An' if Mrs. Kielbacke was to take care of it, it'd die like ten outa every dozen what she boards. The way things has come aroun' now--it'll have to die too. HASSENREUTER Unless our Father above who sees all things has differently determined. QUAQUARO D'you mean Paul, the mason? Not now! No sir! I knows him! He's a ticklish customer where his honour is concerned. MRS. HASSENREUTER Just look how the child lies there! It's incomprehensible! Fine linen--even lace! Neat and sweet as a doll! It makes one's heart ache to think how suddenly it has become an utterly forlorn and forsaken orphan. SPITTA Where I judge in Israel ... HASSENREUTER You would erect a monument to Mrs. John! It may well be that many an element of the heroic, much that is hiddenly meritorious, lurks in these obscure fates and struggles. But not even Kohlhaas of Kohlhaasenbrueck with his mad passion for justice could fight his way through! Let us use practical Christianity! Perhaps we could permanently befriend the child. QUAQUARO You better keep your hands offa that! HASSENREUTER Why? QUAQUARO Unless you're crazy to get rid o' money an' are anxious for all the worries an' the troubles you'll have with the public charities an' the police an' the courts. HASSENREUTER For such things I have no time to spare, I confess. SPITTA