When Maisie looked up again she saw Papa. A thin man with a black beard and soft brown eyes, he was following the others at a distance, walking with his head bowed; and he looked so dejected and hopeless that Maisie wanted to cry. "Papa, what's happened?" she said. "Why are you home early?"
"Come inside," he said, his voice so low that Maisie could only just hear.
The two children followed him into the back of the house. He knelt by the mattress and kissed Mama's lips. She woke up and smiled at him. He did not smile back. "The firm's bust," he said, speaking Yiddish. "Toby Pilaster went bankrupt."
Maisie was not sure what that meant but Papa's tone of voice made it sound like a disaster. She shot a look at Danny: he shrugged. He did not understand it either.
"But why?" Mama said.
"There's been a financial crash," Papa said. "A big bank in London failed yesterday."
Mama frowned, struggling to concentrate. "But this isn't London," she said. "What's London to us?"
"The details I don't know."
"So you've got no work?"
"No work, and no pay."
"But today they've paid you."
Papa bowed his head. "No, they didn't pay us."
Maisie looked at Danny again. This they understood. No money meant no food for any of them. Danny looked scared. Maisie wanted to cry.
"They must pay you," Mama whispered. "You worked all week, they have to pay you."
"They've no money," Papa said. "That's what bankrupt means, it means you owe people money and can't pay them."
"But Mr. Pilaster is a good man, you always said."
"Toby Pilaster's dead. He hanged himself, last night, in his office in London. He had a son Danny's age."
"But how are we to feed our children?"
"I don't know," Papa said, and to Maisie's horror he began to cry. "I'm sorry, Sarah," he said as the tears rolled into his beard. "I've brought you to this awful place where there are no Jews and no one to help us. I can't pay the doctor, I can't buy medicines, I can't feed our children. I've failed you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He leaned forward and buried his wet face in Mama's breast. She stroked his hair with a shaky hand.
Maisie was appalled. Papa never cried. It seemed to mean the end of any hope. Perhaps they would all die now.
Danny stood up, looked at Maisie, and jerked his head toward the door. She got up and together they tiptoed out of the room. Maisie sat on the front step and began to cry. "What are we going to do?" she said.
"We'll have to run away," Danny said.
Danny's words gave her a cold feeling in her chest. "We can't," she said.
