"Because I mean you to."
"I wonder why I'm not hating you?"
"Because if you did I should leave you."
"I couldn't let you go. It seems to me the whole world is different since I got you. But do tell me, you are not very good yourself?"
"I am not at all so good. Ask the people at Sunnyside what they think of me. There is my dearest friend lying at death's door—that is not my fault, of course; but when I can smile at all when I remember her, you must see for yourself that there is a great deal that is very far from good in me. But there, now, I want to talk about Miss Frost."
"Now, why?" said Irene. "That horror! That dreadful stick-in-the-mud! Oh, she is detestable! I cannot tell you how I loathe her."
"You do, because you don't understand her."
"And pray do you?"
"I understand her more than you do; and in any case I could not be cruel to her."
"But she is so old, and so ugly."