“You don’t mean to tell me that you have the heart to support this place as a house of ill-repute by spending poor Jamie’s money in that way?”
“Bless your heart, no. I own this property, a monument to Jamie’s pure devotion and good intentions. It not only serves to remind me of where I last looked upon him alive, thereby making the associations more pleasant, but also keeps fresh in my mind the night that I leaped in the darkness and landed into the mire of debauchery.”
“Do your girls know your story?”
“In part, yes.”
“Do they enjoy the existence of soiled doves?”
“But, my dear sir, they are not soiled doves; they are brands which I have snatched from the burning.”
“Then this is not a house of⸺”
“No, sir! This is an harbor of restitution, where souls may be anchored to hope, where hope fills the heart with a longing for better and purer things; a home where I am trying to atone for my own misdeeds.”