Rosa sprang up.

Here was a customer, at last! But the woman only came to the counter, and stood still.

She was young, very thin and ill, evidently, and her eyes had tears in their depths.

Under the black shawl that was over the newcomer's head Rosa spied a dark mark, as of a bruise, on the forehead.

The young woman tried to speak.
"I have three little children," she said.