JOHN

[_Stops, grasps his forehead and sinks into a chair._] If that's true, mother, I'll be too ashamed to show my face again.

[_He seems to sink into himself, crosses his arms over his head and hides his face._

Ha.s.sENREUTER

Mrs. John, how could you permit yourself to be forced into a course of so much error and deception? You've entangled yourself in the most frightful way! Come, children! Unhappily there is nothing more for us to do here.

JOHN

[_Gets up._] You might as well take me along with you, sir.

MRS. JOHN

Go on! Go on! I don' need you!

JOHN

[_Turning to her, coldly._] So you bargained for that there kid someway an' when its mother wanted it back you got Bruno to kill her?

MRS. JOHN

You ain't no husband o' mine! How could that be! You been bought by the police! You took money to give me up to my death! Go on, Paul, you ain't human even! You got poison in your eyes an' teeth like wolves'! Go on an'

whistle so they'll come an' take me! Go on, I says! Now I see the kind o'

man you is an' I'll despise you to the day o' judgment!

[_She is about to run from the room when policeman SCHIERKE and QUAQUARO appear._

SCHIERKE

Hold on! n.o.body can't get outa this room.

JOHN

Come right in, Emil! You c'n come in reel quiet, officer. Everything in order here an' all right.

QUAQUARO

Don't get excited, Paul! This here don' concern you!

JOHN

[_With rising rage._] Did you laugh, Emil?

QUAQUARO

Man alive, why should I? Only Mr. Schierke is to take that there little one to the orphan house in a cab.

SCHIERKE

Yessir! That's right. Where is the child?

JOHN

How is I to know where all the brats offa junk heaps that witches use in their doin's gets to in the end? Watch the chimney! Maybe it flew outa there on a broomstick.

MRS. JOHN

Paul!--Now it _ain't_ to live! No, outa spite! Now it don' _has_ to live!

Now it's gotta go down under the ground with me!

[_With lightning-like rapidity she has run behind the part.i.tion and reappears at once with the child and makes for the door. Ha.s.sENREUTER and SPITTA throw themselves in front of the desperate woman, intent on saving the child._

Ha.s.sENREUTER

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. Ha.s.sENREUTER

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, Ha.s.sENREUTER, MRS. Ha.s.sENREUTER and WALBURGA busy themselves about the child, which lies on the table._

Ha.s.sENREUTER

[_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. Ha.s.sENREUTER

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.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

I used no harsh words, mama.