“Vell! maype nodt,” said Mrs. Kranz. “Maype you iss nodt so glad to see me yet. I gome to tell you dot I vill nodt stand for dot Joe Maroni no longer. He has got to get dot cellar oudt. His r-r-rotten vegetables smells in mine nostrils. His young vuns iss in my vay—undt dey steal. An’ dey are all very, very dirty. “I keep a nice shop—eferbody vill tell you so, Miss Kenway. Idt iss a clean shop, and them _Eye_-talians dey iss like pigs yet—de vay dey lif!” cried Mrs. Kranz, excitedly. “I pay mine rent, undt I haf mine rights. I gome to tell you—so-o!” “Oh, dear me!” breathed Ruth, in surprise. “I—I don’t know what you are talking about, Mrs. Kranz. Have—have _we_ got anything to do with your trouble?” “Vell!” exclaimed the large lady. “Hafn’t you say you own de house?” “So Mr. Howbridge says. We own this house——” “Undt _mine_ house,” declared Mrs. Kranz. “Undt more houses. Your uncle, Herr Stower, own idt. I pay mine rent to him for ten year yet.” Ruth began to see—and so did Agnes. Of course, the little girls only stared and wondered at the woman’s coarse voice and strange appearance. “You were one of uncle’s tenants?” said Ruth, quickly. “For ten year,” repeated Mrs. Kranz. “And you are having trouble with another tenant?” “Mit dot Joe Maroni. He has kinder like steps—von, two, tri, fo’, five, six—like _dot_,” and the woman indicated by gestures the height of the children in rotation. “Dey swarm all ofer de blace. I cannot stand dem—undt de dirt—Ach! idt iss terrible.” “I am sorry, Mrs. Kranz,” Ruth said, quietly. “I understand that this Italian family are likewise tenants of the house?” “They lif de cellar in—undt sell vegetables, undt coal, undt wood, undt ice—undt dirt! heafens, vot dirt!” and the plume on Mrs. Kranz’s hat trembled throughout its length, while her red face grew redder, and her eyes more sparkling. “But perhaps, Mrs. Kranz, the poor things know no better,” Ruth suggested. “It must be dreadful to have to live in a cellar. They have nobody to teach them. Don’t the children go to school—when there is school, I mean?” “Undt I—am _I_ no example to dem yet?” demanded the lady. “Ach! dese foreigners! I nefer could get along yet mit foreigners.” This tickled Agnes so that she laughed, and then coughed to hide it. Mrs. Kranz was attracted to the twelve year old. “Dot iss a pretty madchen,” she said, smiling broadly upon Agnes. “She iss your sister, too? Undt de kinder?” her sharp eyes sighting Tess and Dot. “This is Agnes,” Ruth said, gladly changing the subject for a moment. “And this is Tess, and _this_, Dot—Dorothy, you know. We have had no mother for more than two years.” “Ach!” said Mrs. Kranz, in a tone denoting sympathy, and she made a funny clucking noise in her throat. “De poor kinder! Undt _you_ haf de hausmutter been—no?”