The Empty Purse

A lodger's attic room in a Berlin tenement on a warm summer night, the ceiling bulb dark, the only light a candle stub on a saucer, the window open onto a dark courtyard, on a wooden board on the wall a black upright electricity meter thirty-two centimetres tall with strongly rounded corners and chipped paint, at its top a small glass window with plain blank wheels, below it a smooth black plate, at the right a bronze-coloured cover tapering to a point with a vertical coin slot, below it a three-winged turning handle, a black cash box at the bottom, a hand in a rolled shirt sleeve holding an open empty purse.