'Oh yes, they could,' said Debby thoughtfully bisecting the blanket with her hand; 'and the bed's quite clean, or I wouldn't venture to ask you. Maybe it's not so soft as you've been used to.'
Esther pondered; she was fatigued, and she had undergone too many poignant emotions already to relish the hunt for a lodging. It was really lucky this haven offered itself.
'I'll stay for to-night, anyhow,' she announced, while Debby's face lit up as with a bonfire of joy. 'To-morrow we'll discuss matters further; and now, dear, can I help you with your sewing?'
'No, Esther, thank you kindly. You see, there's only enough for one,' said Debby apologetically; 'to-morrow there may be more. Besides, you were never as clever with your needle as your pen. You always used to lose marks for needlework, and don't you remember how you herring-boned the tucks of those petticoats instead of feather-stitching them? Ha, ha, ha! I have often laughed at the recollection.'
'Oh, that was only absence of mind!' said Esther, tossing her head in affected indignation. 'If my work isn't good enough for you, I think I'll go down and help Becky with her machine.'
She put on her bonnet, and not without curiosity descended a flight of stairs and knocked at a door which, from the steady whirr going on behind it, she judged to be that of the workroom.
'Art thou a man or a woman?' came in Yiddish the well-remembered tones of the valetudinarian lady.
'A woman,' answered Esther in German.
She was glad she had learned German; it would be the best substitute for Yiddish in her new old life.
'Herein!' said Mrs. Belcovitch with sentry-like brevity.