"I'm afraid she is going to leave us."
"Indeed? I have been looking on her as a fixture."
"She has been telling me the mother's shop has to be given up."
"It is a case of the shop giving up the mother, I fear."
"This poor little thing says she can't be happy living with us in luxury while the mother and sister are in difficulties. She thinks of taking a quite small house, and getting together a school of little children. It seems a hopeless look-out, Francis."
"It does," he acquiesced, and took up the book he had laid down.
"But, Francis, I wish you would show a little interest. We decided when that poor boy was killed we owed them what reparation could be made. I feel deeply something should be done for this girl. She is too pretty, too young, too delicate and dainty, to fight such a hard fight alone."
"She has her mother and sister."
"Nice women, I am sure, but—helpless."
"I would not call the mother helpless. She has held on, and done her best in that hopeless shop."