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 und a quarter,"
she said.

"It's all I've got," he pleaded, his voice breaking. "I
must get someone -- 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.

[[219]]

p218 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p219w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p220

v?