Then, with a horrible sinking of the heart, Teta Elzbieta
unlocked her bureau and brought out the paper that had
already caused them so many agonies. Now they sat
round, scarcely breathing, while the old lady, who could
read English, ran over it. "Yes," she said, finally, "here
it is, of course: 'With interest thereon monthly, at the
rate of seven per cent per annum.'"

And there followed a dead silence. "What does that
mean?" asked Jurgis finally, almost in a whisper.

"That means," replied the other, "that you have to
pay them seven dollars next month, as well as the twelve
dollars."

Then again there was not a sound. It was sickening,
like a nightmare, in which suddenly something gives way
beneath you, and you feel yourself sinking, sinking, down
into bottomless abysses. As if in a flash of lightning they
saw themselves -- victims of a relentless fate, cornered,
trapped, in the grip of destruction. All the fair struc~
ture of their hopes came crashing about their ears. -- And
all the time the old woman was going on talking.
They wished that she would be still; her voice sounded
like the croaking of some dismal raven. Jurgis sat with
his hands clenched and beads of perspiration on his fore~
head, and there was a great lump in Ona's throat, choking
her. Then suddenly Teta Elzbieta broke the silence with
a wail, and Marija began to wring her hands and sob,
_"Ai!_Ai!_Beda_man!"_

All their outcry did them no good, of course. There
sat Grandmother Majauszkiene, unrelenting, typifying
fate. No, of course it was not fair, but then fairness had
nothing to do with it. And of course they had not known
it. They had not been intended to know it. But it was
in the deed, and that was all that was necessary, as they
would find when the time came.

Somehow or other they got rid of their guest, and then
they passed a night of lamentation. The children woke up
and found out that something was wrong, and they wailed
and would not be comforted. In the morning, of course,
most of them had to go to work, the packing-houses would

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p081 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p082w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p083

v?