Jurgis put the money on the table and the woman counted it and stowed it away.  Then she wiped her greasy hands again and proceeded to get ready, complaining all the time; she was so fat that it was painful for her to move, and she grunted and gasped at every step.  She took off her wrapper without even taking the trouble to turn her back to Jurgis, and put on her corsets and dress.  Then there was a black bonnet which had to be adjusted carefully, and an umbrella which was mislaid, and a bag full of necessaries which had to be collected from here and there—­the man being nearly crazy with anxiety in the meantime.  When they were on the street he kept about four paces ahead of her, turning now and then, as if he could hurry her on by the force of his desire.  But Madame Haupt could only go so far at a step, and it took all her attention to get the needed breath for that.

They came at last to the house, and to the group of frightened women in the kitchen.  It was not over yet, Jurgis learned—­he heard Ona crying still; and meantime Madame Haupt removed her bonnet and laid it on the mantelpiece, and got out of her bag, first an old dress and then a saucer of goose grease, which she proceeded to rub upon her hands.  The more cases this goose grease is used in, the better luck it brings to the midwife, and so she keeps it upon her kitchen mantelpiece or stowed away in a cupboard with her dirty clothes, for months, and sometimes even for years.

Then they escorted her to the ladder, and Jurgis heard her give an exclamation of dismay.  “Gott in Himmel, vot for haf you brought me to a place like dis?  I could not climb up dot ladder.  I could not git troo a trap door!  I vill not try it—­vy, I might kill myself already.  Vot sort of a place is dot for a woman to bear a child in—­up in a garret, mit only a ladder to it?  You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” Jurgis stood in the doorway and listened to her scolding, half drowning out the horrible moans and screams of Ona.

At last Aniele succeeded in pacifying her, and she essayed the ascent; then, however, she had to be stopped while the old woman cautioned her about the floor of the garret.  They had no real floor—­they had laid old boards in one part to make a place for the family to live; it was all right and safe there, but the other part of the garret had only the joists of the floor, and the lath and plaster of the ceiling below, and if one stepped on this there would be a catastrophe.  As it was half dark up above, perhaps one of the others had best go up first with a candle.  Then there were more outcries and threatening, until at last Jurgis had a vision of a pair of elephantine legs disappearing through the trap door, and felt the house shake as Madame Haupt started to walk.  Then suddenly Aniele came to him and took him by the arm.

“Now,” she said, “you go away.  Do as I tell you—­you have done all you can, and you are only in the way.  Go away and stay away.”