"Not so many," Peter reminded her, "as you'd have where you were brought up."
"You are staying in the city?" Miss Havens suggested.
"That's different. I have to." He had already told her about Ellen and also about his mother.
"And are you always going to stay on here like this, working and working and never taking any time for yourself? Aren't you ever going to ... marry?"
"I know too much what poverty is like to ask any woman to share it," Peter protested.
"Suppose she should ask you?"
"They don't do that; the right sort."
"I don't see why ... if some girl ... cared ... and if she saw ... anybody struggling along under burdens she would be glad to share, and she knew because of that he didn't mean to ask her ... You think she ought not to let him know?"
"I think it wouldn't be best," said Peter.
"You think the man would despise her?"