[To her]
Drop the ugly thing!

MARTIN'S WIFE
Now, on my word! and what's amiss with mothers?
Are mothers horrible?
[The PIPER is struck with painful memories.]

PIPER
No, no. But--care
And want and pain and age. . .
[Turns back to them with a bitter change of voice]
And penny-wealth,--
And penny-counting.--Penny prides and fears--
Of what the neighbors say the neighbors say!--

MARTIN'S WIFE
And were you born without a mother, then?

ALL
Yes, you there! Ah, I told you! He's no man.
He's of the devil.

MARTIN'S WIFE
Who was your mother, then?

PIPER
[fiercely]
Mine!--Nay, I do not know. For when I saw her,
She was a thing so trodden, lost and sad,