The woman was watching him narrowly. 'How much do you pay?' she demanded.
'Must I pay now—right away?'
'Yes; all my customers do.'
'I—I haven't much money,' Jurgis began in an agony of dread. 'I've been in—in trouble—and my money is gone. But I'll pay you—every cent—just as soon as I can; I can work—'
'Vot is your work?'
'I have no place now. I must get one. But I—'
'How much haf you got now?'
He could hardly bring himself to reply. When he said 'A dollar and a quarter,' the woman laughed in his face.
'I vould not put on my hat for a dollar and a quarter,' she said.
'It's all I've got,' he pleaded, his voice breaking. 'I must get some one—my wife will die. I can't help it—I—'
Madame Haupt had put back her pork and onions on the stove. She turned to him and answered, out of the steam and noise: 'Git me ten dollars cash, und so you can pay me the rest next mont'.'
'I can't do it—I haven't got it!' Jurgis protested. 'I tell you I have only a dollar and a quarter.'
The woman turned to her work. 'I don't believe you,' she said. 'Dot is all to try to sheat me. Vot is de reason a big man like you has got only a dollar und a quarter?'
'I've just been in jail,' Jurgis cried—he was ready to get down upon his knees to the woman—'and I had no money before, and my family has almost starved.'
'Vere is your friends, dot ought to help you?'
'They are all poor,' he answered. 'They gave me this. I have done everything I can—'
'Haven't you got notting you can sell?'
'I have nothing, I tell you—I have nothing,' he cried, frantically.
'Can't you borrow it, den? Don't your store people trust you?' Then, as he shook his head, she went on: 'Listen to me—if you git me you vill be glad of it. I vill save your wife und baby for you, and it vill not seem like mooch to you in de end. If you loose dem now how you tink you feel den? Und here is a lady dot knows her business—I could send you to people in dis block, und dey vould tell you—'
Madame Haupt was pointing her cooking-fork at Jurgis persuasively; but her words were more than he could bear. He flung up his hands with a gesture of despair and turned and started away. 'It's no use,' he exclaimed—but suddenly he heard the woman's voice behind him again—
'I vill make it five dollars for you.'
She followed behind him, arguing with him. 'You vill be foolish not to take such an offer,' she said. 'You von't find nobody go out on a rainy day like dis for less. Vy, I haf never took a case in my life so sheap as dot. I couldn't pay mine room rent—'
Jurgis interrupted her with an oath of rage. 'If I haven't got it,' he shouted, 'how can I pay it? Damn it, I would pay you if I could, but I tell you I haven't got it. I haven't got it! Do you hear me I haven't got it!'
He turned and started away again. He was halfway down the stairs before Madame Haupt could shout to him: 'Vait! I vill go mit you! Come back!'
He went back into the room again.
'It is not goot to tink of anybody suffering,' she said, in a melancholy voice. 'I might as vell go mit you for noffing as vot you offer me, but I vill try to help you. How far is it?'
'Three or four blocks from here.'
'Tree or four! Und so I shall get soaked! Gott in Himmel, it ought to be vorth more! Vun dollar und a quarter, und a day like dis!—But you understand now—you vill pay me de rest of twenty-five dollars soon?'
'As soon as I can.'
'Some time dis mont'?'
