I can put a mattress on the floor and you can stay here until you find a place. I am out most of the day. It will not be any trouble.
Jake felt his lips tremble with a sudden feeling of gratefulness.
But he couldn’t accept. ‘Thanks,’ he said, ‘I already got a place.’
As he was leaving the mute handed him a pair of blue overalls, rolled into a tight bundle, and seventy-five cents. The overalls were filthy and as Jake recognized them they aroused in him a whirl of sudden memories from the past week. The money, Singer made him understand, had been in his pockets.