'But surely you would have taken help of me?' she said.
Debby shook her head obstinately.
'Well, I'm not so proud,' said Esther, with a tremulous smile, 'for, see, I have come to take help of you!'
Then the tears welled forth, and Debby with an impulsive movement pressed the little sobbing form against her faded bodice, bristling with pin-heads. Esther recovered herself in a moment and drank some more tea.
'Are the same people living here?' she said.
'Not altogether. The Belcovitches have gone up in the world; they live on the first floor now.'
'Not much of a rise that,' said Esther, smiling, for the Belcovitches had always lived on the third floor.
'Oh, they could have gone to a better street altogether,' explained Debby, 'only Mr. Belcovitch didn't like the expense of a van.'
'Then Sugarman the Shadchan must have moved too,' said Esther; 'he used to have the first floor.'
'Yes; he's got the third now. You see, people get tired of living in the same place. Then Ebenezer, who became very famous through writing a book—so he told me—went to live by himself, so they didn't want to be so grand. The back apartment at the top of the house you used to inhabit,' Debby put it as delicately as she could, 'is vacant. The last family had the brokers in.'