“I'm used to that.”
“And criticized and shunned.”
“Not by people whose opinion I value.”
“Women shouldn't go poking into such places.”
“I've been taught that they should.”
“Well, you'll get some dreadful disease and lose your beauty, and then where are you?” added Charlie, thinking that might daunt the young philanthropist.
But it did not, for Rose answered, with a sudden kindling of the eyes as she remembered her talk with Uncle Alec: “I shouldn't like it. But there would be one satisfaction in it, for when I'd lost my beauty and given away my money, I should know who really cared for me.”
Charlie nibbled his pen in silence for a moment, then asked, meekly, “Could I respectfully inquire what great reform is to be carried on in the old houses which their amiable owner is repairing?”
“I am merely going to make them comfortable homes for poor but respectable women to live in. There is a class who cannot afford to pay much, yet suffer a great deal from being obliged to stay in noisy, dirty, crowded places like tenement houses and cheap lodgings. I can help a few of them and I'm going to try.”
“May I humbly ask if these decayed gentlewomen are to inhabit their palatial retreat rent-free?”