live off my class... you have to ride on our backs. And it don't much matter which part you ride on, as far as I can see. You'll make your husband get a new job, maybe; but he'll do the same thing in another way... only you won't find it out. But any way he gets his money it'll come out of me and my kind. D'ye see? I do the work... I'm the man underneath. I make the good things, and you get them. [A pause.] Good luck to you.

MRS. AUSTIN. You are cruel.

JIM. Nothing of the kind. I've just told you the facts. I feel sorry for you. I'd do anything I could for you. [Stretching out his hands.] See what I've done! I've given you your husband's life.

MRS. AUSTIN. Oh!

JIM. Yes, just that. You've no idea how many times I swore it... that I'd kill him on sight... that I'd strangle the life out of him, if ever I laid eyes on him again. I used to sit when I was half drunk, and brood over it... my God, I even swore it by the body of my little boy! And I've got my gun, and you've taken his away from him. And I don't shoot him. [A pause.] I leave him to you. [Grimly.] You punish him.

[Exit right.]

[AUSTIN stretches out his arms to his wife. She sinks upon the table, burying her head.]

CURTAIN