Iven paid the second installment before going to work.
The clerk entered day four hundred and fifty beside the six old bench-day fees, checked the source account and gave him the acknowledgment. Twelve remained under the fixed award: six due on the four hundred and eightieth day, six on the five hundred and tenth.
He put those dates back in his own book.
Then he put the receipt away and went to the workhouse, where a carrier’s little brake assembly waited on his bench and his own fee would be paid when it was finished.
Across the town, Asa had a different debt on her table.
Mayet stood beside it with both children behind her and a kitchen cloth still tucked into her belt. She had taken two paid cleaning mornings at the cooperative when the first member arrangement opened. Since then she had added an evening preparation turn and stopped needing the little first-week aid allocation.
Today she had brought the letter because she did not know who else would read it before the named collection time.
Asa finished directing the morning pot off the hot plate.
