They c'n holler all they wants to but they can't get my child.
HASSENREUTER
Perhaps this is the better way. You go into the library for the present. [He escorts PAULINE, MRS. KIELBACKE and the child into the library.] And now, Mr. Schierke, we might risk letting that fury enter in here.
SCHIERKE
[Opening the door slightly.] All right. But only Mrs. Knobbe! Come in here a minute.
MRS. SIDONIE KNOBBE appears. She is tall and emaciated and dressed in a badly worn but fashionable summer gown. Her face bears the stigma, of a dissolute life but gives evidence of a not ungentle origin. Her air is curiously like that of a gentlewoman. She talks affectedly and her eyes show addiction to alcohol and morphine.
MRS. KNOBBE
[Sailing in.] There is no cause for any anxiety, Mr. Hassenreuter. Those without are principally little boys and girls who have come with me because I am fond of children. Pray pardon me if I intrude. One of the children told me that two women had sneaked up here with my little boy. I am looking for my little son, named Helfgott Gundofried, who has actually disappeared from my dwelling. At the same time I do not wish to incommode you.
SCHIERKE
An' you better not do that if I has any say about it.