Janet. I do, an’ I mean it. We waited, an’ waited, an’ waited. Didn’t he try all he could to get a better job? ’Twasn’t his fault he couldn’t. We was planning to go West, or somewhere—where he’d have more of a chance—we was savin’ up for it on the quiet. An’ while we was waiting, we wanted one another—all day an’ all night. An’ what use was it? We held out till we couldn’t hold out no longer—an’ when we knew what was goin’ to happen, well—we had to get married—an’ that all there’s to it!
Tanner (Making a remarkable discovery, supporting all his personal theories on the subject). Ah! Then your idea was to marry simply because you were going to have a baby!
Janet. Of course it was. D’ye think we wanted to marry an’ live here on the fifteen a week he was getting? We’d have bin starvin’ in a month. But when this happened—we had to get married—starve or not. What else could we do?
Tanner. Well, I don’t know what to say. It seems to me that you should have thought of all this before. You knew what it would mean to have a baby.
Janet. D’ye think I wanted a baby? I didn’t want one. I didn’t know how to stop it. If you don’t like it—it’s a pity you don’t preach sermons on how to stop havin’ babies when they’re not wanted. There’d be some sense in that. That’d be more sense than talkin’ about waitin’—an’ waitin’—an’ waitin’. There’s hundreds of women round here—starvin’ and sufferin’—an’ havin’ one baby after another, and don’t know the first thing about how to stop it. ’Tisn’t my fault I’m going to have one. I didn’t want it.
Tanner. Miss Ransome, your views simply astound me.
Janet. I can’t help it. People may think it wrong, an’ all that, but it ain’t his fault and it ain’t mine. Don’t you think we used to get sick of goin’ to movies, an’ vaudeville shows, an’ all them other places—time after time? I wanted him to love me, an’ I ain’t ashamed of it, neither.
Mrs. Ransome. Janet, how dare you talk like that in front of Mr. Tanner? (To Tanner.) She don’t mean it, Mr. Tanner. She don’t know what she’s saying. I’ve always brought her up to be innercent about things. She must have got all this from the other girls at the store where she works. She didn’t get it in her home, that’s sure.
Janet. No, that I didn’t. Nor nothing else, neither. You was always ashamed to tell me about anything, so I found out about things from other girls, like the rest of ’em do. I’ve known it for years and years, an’ all the while I suppose you’ve bin thinkin’ I didn’t know anything, I’ve known everything—all except what’d be useful to me. If I’m going to have a baby it’s your fault, mother, as much as anybody. You only had one yourself—but you never told me nothin’.
Mrs. Ransome. Janet!