, ha! did any one ever hear the like? Yes, look here; you
can see for yourself."

"Yes," she said; "it is often put down like that; it is a kind of Dutch
cheese. Yes, that is all right--five-sixteenths is in this case five
ounces."

"Yes, yes; I understand that well enough," I interrupted, although in
truth I understood nothing more whatever.

I tried once more to get this little account right, that I could have
totted up in a second some months ago. I sweated fearfully, and thought
over these enigmatical figures with all my might, and I blinked my eyes
reflectingly, as if I was studying this matter sharply, but I had to
give it up. These five ounces of cheese finished me completely; it was
as if something snapped within my forehead. But yet, to give the
impression that I still worked out my calculation, I moved my lips and
muttered a number aloud, all the while sliding farther and farther down
the reckoning as if I were steadily coming to a result. She sat and
waited. At last I said:

"Well, now, I have gone through it from first to last, and there is no
mistake, as far as I can see."

"Isn't there?" replied the woman, "isn't there really?" But I saw well
that she did not believe me, and she seemed all at once to throw a dash
of contempt into her words, a slightly careless tone that I had never
heard from her before. She remarked that perhaps I was not accustomed
to reckon in sixteenths; she mentioned also that she must only apply to
some one who had a knowledge of sixteenths, to get the account properly
revised. She said all this, not in any hurtful way to make me feel
ashamed, but thoughtfully and seriously. When she got as far as the
door, she said, without looking at me:

"Excuse me for taking up your time then."

Off she went.

A moment after, the door opened again, and she re-entered. She could
hardly have gone much farther than the stairs before she had turned
back.

"That's true," said she; "you mustn't take it amiss; but there is a
little owing to me from you now, isn't there? Wasn't it three weeks
yesterday since you came?" Yes, I thought it was. "It isn't so easy to
keep things going with such a big family, so that I can't give lodging
on credit, more's the...."

I stopped her. "I am working at an article that I think I told you
about before," said I, "and as soon as ever that is finished, you shall
have your money; you can make yourself quite easy...."

"Yes; but you'll never get that artic