"Well, you will have money, won't you? Your folks don't expect you to live here on nothing, do they? If it's only a day or two, I could take you in myself rather than leave you in a place like this. There's plenty of decent places in town." She became practical. "The first thing to do's to pack your things right away. How long is your rent paid? Can't you get some of it back?"
She waited while Helen packed. She did not stop talking, and Helen tried to answer her coherently and gratefully. She felt that she should be grateful. They went down the stairs, and Mrs. Campbell waited outside the restaurant while Helen went in to ask Mrs. Brown to refund the week's rent.
It was noon, but there were only one or two people in the restaurant. Mrs. Brown's smile faded when Helen stammered that she was leaving.
"You are? What's wrong? Anybody been bothering you?" Her glance fell upon the waiting Mrs. Campbell, and her sallow face whitened. "Oh, that's it, is it?"
"No," Helen said hastily. "That is, it's been very nice here, and I liked it, but a friend of mine—she wants me to stay with her. I'm sorry to leave, but I haven't much money." She struggled against feeling pity for Mrs. Brown. She choked over asking her to refund the rent.
Mrs. Brown said she could not do it. She offered, however, to give Helen something in trade, two dollars' worth. They both tried to make the transaction commonplace and dignified.
Helen, at a loss, pointed out a heap of peanut candy in the glass counter. She had often looked at it and wished she could afford to buy some. Mrs. Brown's thin hands shook, but she was piling the candy on the scale when Mrs. Campbell came in.
"What's she doing?" Mrs. Campbell asked Helen. "You buying candy?"
"I don't know what business it is of yours, coming interfering with me!" Mrs. Brown broke out. "I never did her any harm. I never even talked to her. You ask her if I ever bothered her. You ask her if I didn't leave her alone. You ask her if I ain't keeping a decent, respectable, quiet place and doing the best I can and minding my own business and trying to make a square living. You ask her what I ever did to her all the time she's been here." Her voice was high and shrill. Tears were rolling down her face. Mechanically she went on breaking up the candy and piling it on the scales. "I don't know what I ever did to you that you don't leave me alone, coming poking around."
"I didn't come here to talk to you," said Mrs. Campbell. "Come on out of here," she commanded Helen.