"Mary," she said, determined to sink herself and to be true to her code, "I am very sorry to have heard all this. I am sorry that I seemed harsh when I said you had not been quite honest with us."
"But I hadn't been, Miss Lennox."
"It was not altogether your fault if you weren't, Mary. I begin to see that it must be rather hard, sometimes, to be quite honest."
"It is, sometimes."
"But you have been honest now with me, and I want to help you. I want you to come around here in the way I described. I want you to come often."
She paused, and then, as Mary did not respond, she added:
"Will you?"
Mary's eyes were on the floor.
"Do you think you can get me a job?" she asked. "Do you think anyone can?"
Marian had thought nothing about it.