JOHN
Not a bit of it! I don't stay with such people; not anywhere near 'em. [He brings his fist down on the table, taps at the walls, stamps on the floor.] Listen to the crackin'! Listen, how the plasterin' comes rumblin' down behind the wall-paper! Everything rotten here, everythin's worm eaten! Everythin's undermined by varmint an' by rats an' by mice. [He see-saws on a loose plank in the floor.] Every thin' totters! Any minute the whole business might crash down into the cellar.—[He opens the door.] Selma! Selma! I'm goin' to pull outa here before the whole thing just falls together into a heap o' rubbish!
MRS. JOHN
What do you want o' Selma?
JOHN
Selma is goin' to take that child an' I'll go with 'em on the train an' take it out to my sister.
MRS. JOHN
You'll hear from me if you try that! Oh, you jus' try it!
JOHN
Is my child to be brought up in surroundin's like this, an' maybe some day be driven over the roofs with Bruno an' maybe end in the penitentiary?