_
MARY. [_With a despairing cry._] Joe!
[_She flings herself on the mattress, and sobs silently, so as
not to awaken, the child._ JOE _returns, hanging his head,
dragging one foot before the other._
MARY. [_Still sobbing, but trying to control herself._] Why did you do
that?
JOE. [_Humbly._] I don't know--
MARY. You gave it to the policeman?
JOE. Yes.
MARY. What did you tell him?
JOE. That you had found it.
MARY. Where?
JOE. In a Tube Station. Picked it up because we were starving. That we
hadn't opened it. And that we lived here, in this cellar.
MARY. [_With a little shake._] I expect he'll keep it himself!
JOE. [_Miserably._] Perhaps.
[_There is silence for a moment; she has ceased to cry; suddenly
she raises herself violently on her elbow._
MARY. You fool! You fool!
JOE. [_Pleading._] Mary!
MARY. With your stupid ideas of honesty! What have they done for you, or
me?
JOE. [_Dropping his head again._] It's the kiddie, you know--her being a
thief's daughter--
MARY. Is that worse than being the daughter of a pair of miserable
beggars?
JOE. [_Under his breath._] I suppose it is, somehow--
MARY. You'd rather she went hungry?
JOE. [_Despairingly._] I don't know how it was--hearing his tramp up
there--
MARY. You were afraid?
JOE. I don't want you taken to prison.
MARY. [_With a wail._] I'll be taken to the graveyard soon, in a pauper's
coffin!
JOE. [_Starts suddenly._] Suppose we did that?
MARY.
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