"Well, why don't you go? Am I going to live, or can I die?"
"What brought you out here, Miss Warren," said he at last. "You don't belong in a place like this."
"Where then do I belong?" she asked. "Food and a bed—that's more than I can earn."
"Maybe we can fix up a way for you to be useful, if you don't go away." He spoke so gently, she began to trust him.
"But I'm not going away. I have no place to go to." She smiled bitterly. "I haven't money enough to buy my ticket back home if I had a home to go to. That's the truth. Why didn't you let me die?"
"You ought to want to live," said Doctor Barnes. "The lane turns, sometimes."
"Not for me. Worse and worse, that's all.… I'll have to tell you— I don't like to tell strangers, about myself. But, you see, my brother was killed in the war. We had some money once, my brother and I. Our banker lost it for us. I had to work, and then, after he went away, I began to—to lose my eyes."
"How long was that coming on?"
"Two years—about. The last part came all at once, on the cars, when I was coming out. I've never seen—him—Mr. Gage, you know. I don't know what he looks like."
"They call him Sim Gage."