TUPIN. I thought they were not good company for her.
PRES [pretending not to hear and consulting his notes] You gave yourself up and declared that you yourself took her to this woman’s house.
TUPIN. You speak like a book.
PRES. You persistently accused yourself. Did you want to go to prison?
TUPIN. It’s not a bad place. One’s warm, and there’s food at every meal.
PRES. It is true that prison diet is better than your everyday fare.
TUPIN. Now you’re talking.
PRES [consulting his notes] When you were arrested you were both completely destitute. What remained of your furniture had been sold, and you were entering upon a state of complete vagabondage. No doubt you also will accuse society. You are an unruly person. You frequent Socialist clubs; and when you don’t affect a cynical carelessness in your language, as you are doing now, you like to repeat the empty phrases you have picked up from the propagandist pamphlets which are poisoning the minds of the working classes. But we know all about you; and if you are a victim, you are the victim of your vices. You drink.
TUPIN. I have taken to it lately. That’s true.