"Why?"

"I would rather — and I think it is right."

"To take care of that old woman?"

"No — I can't do much for her — but I can see that she is taken care of."

"But how would she have done if you had never come here?"

"I don't know. I don't know what that has to do with it, seeing that I am here."

"You wouldn't stay for her now, if she wasn't somebody's old nurse."

Elizabeth did not answer.

"But how long do you mean to stay here, Lizzie? — any how?"

"Till I must go — till it is less pleasant here than somewhere else."