WIFE
No, the neighbors must have done it.
MAN
Fine people our neighbors are. It's strange, there are so many good people in the world, and yet a man can die of hunger. Why is it?
WIFE
You've turned so sad. Your face is growing pale. What is the matter?
Do you see anything?
MAN
Yes, as I was joking, the terrible image of poverty glided in front of me and stopped there, in the corner. Do you see it? Arms stretched out in complaint, a child abandoned in the woods, a praying voice, and the stillness of a human desert. Help! No one hears. Help, I'm dying! No one hears. Look, wife, look! See the dark, gloomy shadows there, quivering and rising like black smoke from a long, terrible chimney leading into hell. Look! And I'm in the midst of them!
WIFE
I'm afraid. I can't look in that dark corner. Did you see all that in the street?