'The Virgin go with you,' answered the Espositos in a chorus, beginning to work again.
The girls went off quite silently, with their heads down, not able to speak or smile. A woman coming up, hurriedly, knocked against them; and with a quick 'Excuse me!' she went to ring at the Espositos' door. It was Carmela, the cigar-girl, with her big, sorrowful eyes and worn face. Before going into the house she sighed deeply, and her face flushed.
'May I come in?' she said from the lobby, in a weak voice.
'Come in,' was the answer from inside. 'Is it you, good soul?' said Concetta, on recognising her; 'are you really come to give me back that money? your conscience pricked you at last? Give it over here.'
'You are joking, Donna Concetta,' said the poor thing, with a pale smile. 'If I had thirty-four francs, I would give as many leaps in the air.'
'It is thirty-seven and a half francs, with last week's interest,' the money-lender coldly corrected her.
'As you like: who is denying it? As you say, it is thirty-seven and a half, I am sure you are right.'
'You have brought the interest, at least?'
'Nothing, nothing,' the girl said desperately, holding down her head. 'I am eaten up by misery: I have got to earning a franc and a half a day; now I might live like a lady, but——'