Johnny.  Ah!  Tell me all about your beastly time; it’ll do you good.  You and I are different from anybody else in this house.  We’ve lived they’ve just vegetated.  Come on; tell me!

     Faith, who up to now has looked on him as a young male, stares at
     him for the first time without sex in her eyes.

Faith.  I can’t.  We didn’t talk in there, you know.

Johnny.  Were you fond of the chap who—?

Faith.  No.  Yes.  I suppose I was—­once.

Johnny.  He must have been rather a swine.

Faith.  He’s dead.

Johnny.  Sorry!  Oh, sorry!

Faith.  I’ve forgotten all that.

Johnny.  Beastly things, babies; and absolutely unnecessary in the present state of the world.

Faith. [With a faint smile] My baby wasn’t beastly; but I—­I got upset.

Johnny.  Well, I should think so!

Faith.  My friend in the manicure came and told me about hers when I was lying in the hospital.  She couldn’t have it with her, so it got neglected and died.

Johnny.  Um!  I believe that’s quite common.

Faith.  And she told me about another girl—­the Law took her baby from her.  And after she was gone, I—­got all worked up—­ [She hesitates, then goes swiftly on] And I looked at mine; it was asleep just here, quite close.  I just put out my arm like that, over its face—­quite soft—­ I didn’t hurt it.  I didn’t really. [She suddenly swallows, and her lips quiver] I didn’t feel anything under my arm.  And—­and a beast of a nurse came on me, and said “You’ve smothered your baby, you wretched girl!”

I didn’t want to kill it—­I only wanted to save it from living.  And when
I looked at it, I went off screaming.

Johnny.  I nearly screamed when I saved my first German from living.  I never felt the same again.  They say the human race has got to go on, but I say they’ve first got to prove that the human race wants to.  Would you rather be alive or dead?

Faith.  Alive.

Johnny.  But would you have in prison?

Faith.  I don’t know.  You can’t tell anything in there. [With sudden vehemence] I wish I had my baby back, though.  It was mine; and I—­I don’t like thinking about it.

Johnny.  I know.  I hate to think about anything I’ve killed, really. 
At least, I should—­but it’s better not to think.

Faith.  I could have killed that judge.

Johnny.  Did he come the heavy father?  That’s what I can’t stand.  When they jaw a chap and hang him afterwards.  Or was he one of the joking ones?

Faith.  I’ve sat in my cell and cried all night—­night after night,
I have. [With a little laugh] I cried all the softness out of me.