from Aniele, she rushed on: "You go away, Jurgis -- you
can't help -- go away and come back later. It's all right
-- it's--"

"Who's with her?" Jurgis demanded; and then, seeing
Marija hesitating, he cried again, "Who's with her?"

"She's -- she's all right," she answered. "Elzbieta's
with her."

"But the doctor!" he panted. "Someone who knows!"

He seized Marija by the arm; she trembled, and her
voice sank beneath a whisper as she replied, "We -- we
have no money." Then, frightened at the look on his
face, she exclaimed: "It's all right, Jurgis! You don't
understand -- go away -- go away! Ah, if you only had
waited!"

Above her protests Jurgis heard Ona again; he was
almost out of his mind. It was all new to him, raw and
horrible -- it had fallen upon him like a lightning stroke.
When little Antanas was born he had been at work, and
had known nothing about it until it was over; and
now he was not to be controlled. The frightened women
were at their wits' end; one after another they tried to
reason with him, to make him understand that this was the
lot of woman. In the end they half drove him out into the
rain, where he began to pace up and down, bareheaded and
frantic. Because he could hear Ona from the street, he
would first go away to escape the sounds, and then come
back because he could not help it. At the end of a quar~
ter of an hour he rushed up the steps again, and for fear
that he would break in the door they had to open it and
let him in.

There was no arguing with him. They could not tell him
that all was going well -- how could they know, he cried
-- why, she was dying, she was being torn to pieces!
Listen to her -- listen! Why, it was monstrous -- it
could not be allowed -- there must be some help for it!
Had they tried to get a doctor? They might pay him
afterward -- they could promise --

"We couldn't promise, Jurgis," protested Marija. "We
had no money -- we have scarcely been able to keep alive."

[[215]]

p214 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p215w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p216

v?