"What's this?" she demanded.
"It's——" Mary looked at the floor. "It's the rent," she concluded, in a whisper.
"What's the rent?"
"That's all I have—just now. I thought—I thought, considerin' how long I've been here, you might wait a day for the rest, Mrs. Foote."
The landlady opened her hand, and Mary's little store of coin dropped to the bed.
"I can't take this," she said.
"You mean," asked Mary, with a quick gasp of hope, "that you'll let me keep it till I get the rest?"
"No, I don't mean nothin' of the sort," said Mrs. Foote. "I mean I've got to have the whole bill—right now."
Mary's heart sank.
"That's all I have," she said.