Mrs. Ransome. Don’t keep on sayin’ you’re glad. Glad, indeed! Have you thought of the shame and disgrace this’ll bring on me an’ your father? An’ after we’ve saved and scraped these long years to bring you up respectable, an’ give you a good home. You’re glad, are you? You certainly got a lot to be glad about.
Janet. Can’t you understand, mother? We wasn’t thinking of you when it happened—and now it’s all I have.
Mrs. Ransome. Of course you wasn’t thinkin’ of us. Only of yourselves. That’s the way it is, nowadays. But me and your father is the ones that’s got to face it. We’re the ones that’s got to stand all the scandal and talk there’ll be about it. Just think what the family’ll say. Think what the neighbors’ll say. I don’t know what we done to have such a thing happen to us. (Mrs. Ransome breaks into a spell of exaggerated weeping, which ceases as the door-bell rings.) There! That’s the minister. God only knows what I’d better say to him. (Mrs. Ransome hurriedly attempts to tidy the room, knocking over a chair in her haste, pulls up the blinds half-way and returns to her chair. There is a knock at the door. Mrs. Ransome breaks into a prolonged howl.) Come in.
(Enter Rev. Mr. Tanner. He is a stout, pompous clergyman, with a rich, middle-class congregation and a few poorer members, amongst which latter he numbers the Ransomes. His general attitude is kind but patronizing; he displays none of the effusive desire to please which is his correct demeanor towards his richer congregants. The elder Ransomes regard him as their spiritual leader, and worship him along with God at a respectful distance.)
Tanner (He speaks in a hushed voice, glancing towards the kneeling figure of Janet). Bear up, Mrs. Ransome. Bear up, I beg of you! (Mrs. Ransome howls more vigorously; Tanner is embarrassed.) This is very distressing, Mrs. Ransome.
Mrs. Ransome (Between her sobs). It certainly is kind of you to come, Mr. Tanner, I’m sure. We didn’t expect to see you when my husband ’phoned you.
Tanner. Where is your husband now?
Mrs. Ransome. He’s gone to send some telegrams to Bob’s family, sir—his family. We’d planned to have a quiet wedding, sir, with only me and her father and aunt, and then we was goin’ to have the rest of the family in, this afternoon.
Tanner. It’s a very sad thing, Mrs. Ransome.
Mrs. Ransome. It’s fairly dazed us, Mr. Tanner. Comin’ on top of all the preparation we’ve bin makin’ for the past two weeks, too. An’ her father’s spent a pile o’ money on their new furniture an’ things.