The children on the bed began to whisper to one another.

Wilhelm took advantage of the pause to say a few words in Father Stubbe's ear, whereupon the old man vanished.
"Why don't you offer the gentleman a chair ?" said the workman, coming out of his dark corner.
The woman slowly drew forward a chair, round the torn seat of which the straw stood up raggedly on all sides.

Wilhelm thanked her with a wave of the hand.
"Do not be afraid of me, dear Frau Wander," he went on.

"Tell me something of your circumstances." "What was there to tell ?" answered the woman, still somewhat ruffled.
He could see for himself how things stood with her.

Her husband had been turned out of Berlin; but much the police cared if she and her five children starved or froze to death.