PRESIDENT [pretending not to hear] You then gave yourself up on your own confession that it was you who took her to this abominable woman’s house.
TUPIN. You speak like a book.
PRESIDENT. You persisted in the confession of your guilt. Did you want to go to prison?
TUPIN. Why, that’s an idea! You get fed and sheltered there anyway.
PRESIDENT. The prison conditions are certainly better than those you are accustomed to.
TUPIN. Now you’re talking.
PRESIDENT. When you were arrested you were completely destitute. The remains of your furniture had been sold, and you were on the eve of finding yourself without a roof over your head. Doubtless you will blame Society, too. Your insubordinate character leads you to frequent Socialist clubs; and when you do not affect, as you do now, a cynical carelessness in your speech, you are used to repeat the empty phrases you have learnt from the propagandist pamphlets that poison the minds of the working classes. But we know you. If you are a victim, it is to your own vices. You are a hardened drinker.
TUPIN. Lately, that’s true.
PRESIDENT. You admit it. Extraordinary!