It would have come to that already if some of her husband's fellow-workmen had not given them a little help in their distress, like her present visitor, the iron-worker, Groll.

But what could they do?
They had not anything themselves, and the police were always after them like the devil after a poor soul.

What did they want of them after all?
Her husband had held with the Socialists certainly, but he had done nobody any harm by that.
Ever since Wander had gone over to the Socialists he had left off drinking--not a drop--only coffee, and sometimes a little beer; and he was always good to his wife and children, and he had no debts as long as he had been able to earn anything.

The locksmith downstairs had discharged him after the second attack on the emperor, although he was a clever workman; but the master was afraid of the police, and none of the others would risk taking him on.

That was bad enough, but it was not so hard to bear in the summer, and the Socialists held faithfully together, and now and then there was a penny to be earned.