[_Crying vociferously._] Officer Schierke even slapped my face.

MRS. JOHN

Well, I'll see about that ... he oughta try that again.

SELMA

I can't tell why that Polish girl took my little brother away. If I'd known that my little brother was goin' to die, I'd ha' jumped at her throat first. Now little Gundofried's coffin stands on the stairs. I believe mama has convulsions an' is lyin' down in Quaquaro's alcove. An'

me they wants to take to the charity organisation, Mrs. John.

[_She weeps._

MRS. JOHN

Then you c'n be reel happy. They can't treat you worse'n you was treated at home.

SELMA

An' I gotta go to court! An' maybe they'll take me to gaol!

MRS. JOHN

On account o' what?

SELMA

Because they says I took the child what the Polish girl had up in the loft an' carried it down to you.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

So a child actually was born up there.

SELMA

Certainly.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

In _whose_ loft?

SELMA

Why, where them actors lives! It ain't none o' my business! How is I to know anythin' about it? All I c'n say is ...

MRS. JOHN

You better hurry on about your business now, Selma! You got a clean conscience! You don' has to care for what people jabber.

SELMA

An' I don' want to betray nothin' neither, Mrs. John.

JOHN

[_Grasps SELMA, who is about to run away, and holds her fast._] Naw, you ain't goin'! Here you stays! The truth! "I don' want to betray nothin',"

you says. You heard that, too, Mrs. Ha.s.senreuter? An' Mr. Spitta an' the young lady here heard it too. The truth! You ain't goin' to leave this here spot before I don' know the rights o' this matter about Bruno an'

his mistress, an' if you people did away with that child!

MRS. JOHN

Paul, I swear before G.o.d that I ain't done away with it!

JOHN

Well ...? Out with what you know, girl! I been seein' for a long time that there's been some secret scheming between you an' my wife. There ain't no use no more in all that winkin' an' noddin'. Is that child dead or alive?

SELMA

No, that child is alive all right.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

The one, you mean, that you carried down here under your ap.r.o.n or in some such way?

JOHN

If it's dead you c'n be sure that you an' Bruno'll both be made a head shorter'n you are!

SELMA

I'm tellin' you the child is alive.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

But you said at first that you hadn't brought down any child at all.

JOHN

An' you pretend to know nothin' o' that whole business, mother? [_MRS.

JOHN stares at him; SELMA gazes helplessly and confusedly at MRS. JOHN._]

Mother, you got rid o' the child o' Bruno an' that Polish wench an' then, when people came after it, you went an' subst.i.tooted that little crittur o' k.n.o.bbe's.

WALBURGA

[_Very pale and conquering her repugnance._] Tell me, Mrs. John, what happened on that day when I so foolishly took flight up into the loft at papa's coming? I'll explain that to you later, papa. On that occasion, as became clear to me later, I saw the Polish girl twice: first with Mrs.

John and then with her brother.

Ha.s.sENREUTER