MME. TUPIN [outraged] Oh!
TUPIN [indignant] In those days they were not what they are now. If they fell so low it was because I had too many children and I couldn’t look after my boy; and because my girl was deserted and starving. But you must be made of stone to throw that in my teeth.
PRES. And if you took to drinking it’s not your fault either, I suppose?
TUPIN. I want to explain about that. When we began to get short in the house my wife and I started to quarrel. Every time a child came we were mad at making it worse for the others. And so—I needn’t make a long story of it—I ended up in the pub. It’s warm there, and you can’t hear the children crying nor the mother complaining. And besides, when you’ve drink in you you forget.
MME. TUPIN. It’s the sort of thing that it’s good to forget.
TUPIN. And that’s how we got poorer and poorer. My fault if you like.
PRES. And the last child, what about that?
MME. TUPIN. Oh, the last.
TUPIN. The last? He cost us nothing.
PRES [carelessly] Eh?