このあと、彼は勇気を奮い起こして、ノラの母親が罰金を請求されたはずの警察署へと向かい、彼女の住所を訊ねた。だが頑固そうな顔の刑事が担当で、かわりに、まず彼の名前と住所を訊いてきた。そのあとは何も教えてくれなかった。とうとう激情にかられたまま、向こうみずにも、彼は居酒屋に行くと、自分の知りたい情報を求めた。このとき、ジョニーがもう少し世知にたけていたなら、もう少し狡ければ、それにもっと冷静であれば、まず、ここに来たところで、飲み物を注文するところから始め、何気ない会話のやりとりをしながら、窓の話題にもっていき、やがて静かに、易々と目標に到達したことだろう。だが、このような有様で、彼はそうしたことは何もしなかった。彼は飲み物も注文しないで、ぶっきらぼうに声をかけたが、そこでのふるまい方や居酒屋の主の気持ちについても、居酒屋の主がこれまで耐え忍んできた我慢についても、まったく考慮しなかった。居酒屋の主は、樽をぎこちなく叩く音がしたり、給仕が生意気だったりしたせいで、もうすでに機嫌が悪かった。そこで主は、ジョニーに訊ねられると、窓の支払いに来たのかと訊ねた。否定的な答えを聞いたので、すぐに侵入者は「外に」出て行くようにと促した。その言葉には、従うよりほかに仕方ない響きがあった。
After this he screwed his courage so high as to go to the police-station where the charge against Nora’s mother must have been taken, and to ask for her address. But the cast-iron-faced inspector in charge took his name and address instead, as a beginning, and then would tell him nothing. And at last, maddened and reckless, he went to the publican, and demanded the information of him. Now if Johnny had had a little more worldly experience, a little more cunning, and a great deal more coolness, he would have done this at first, and, beginning by ordering a drink, he would have opened a casual conversation, led it to the matter of the window, and in the end would have gained his point quietly and easily. But as it was, he did none of these things. He ordered no drink, and he made a blunt request, taking little thought of its manner, none of the publican’s point of view, and perhaps forgetting that the man was in no way responsible for the rebuffs already endured. The publican, for his part, was already in a bad temper, because of the clumsy tapping of a barrel and ensuing “cheek” of the potman. So he answered Johnny’s demand by asking if he had come to pay for the window; and receiving the negative reply he had expected, he urgently recommended the intruder’s departure “outside”: in such terms as gave no choice but compliance.
