JOE. [_Passionately._] I've done nothing wrong--I haven't drunk or
gambled--I can't help being only a clerk, and unable to do heavy work! I
can't help my lungs being weak! I've a wife and a child, like other
people--and all we ask is to be allowed to live!
MARY. [_Pleading._] Let's give it up, Joe. Go away together, you'd sleep
without coughing. Sleep, that's all. And God will be kinder than men.
JOE. [_Groaning._] Don't, Mary--don't!
MARY. Joe, I can't stand it any longer--I can't. Not only myself--but
Minnie--Joe, it's too much for me! I can't stand Minnie crying, and asking
me for her breakfast, as she will in the morning. Joe, dear Joe, let there
be no morning!
JOE. [_Completely overcome._] Oh, Mary, Mary!
MARY. It's not _your_ fault, dear--you've done what you could. Not _your_
fault they won't let you work--you've tried hard enough. And no woman ever
had a better husband than you've been to me. I love you, dear Joe. And
let's do it--let's make an end. And take Minnie with us.
JOE. [_Springing up._] Mary, I'll steal something to-morrow.
MARY. And they'd send you to prison. Besides, then God would be angry. Now
we can go to Him and need not be ashamed. Let us, dear Joe--oh, do let us!
I'm so tired!
JOE. No.
MARY. [_Sorrowfully._] You won't?
JOE. [_Doggedly._] No. We'll go to the workhouse.
MARY. You've seen them in there, haven't you?
JOE. Yes.
MARY. You've seen them standing at the window, staring at the world? And
they'd take you away from me.