I suppose he thought it best." "But what did he say?
He could not say he _wished_ me to take Fanny.

I am sure in his heart he could not wish me to do it." "No; he only said he thought it very likely; and I thought so too.

We both thought it would be a comfort to you.

But if you do not like it, there is no more to be said.

She is no encumbrance here." "Dear sister, if you consider my unhappy state, how can she be any comfort to me?
Here am I, a poor desolate widow, deprived of the best of husbands, my health gone in attending and nursing him, my spirits still worse, all my peace in this world destroyed, with hardly enough to support me in the rank of a gentlewoman, and enable me to live so as not to disgrace the memory of the dear departed--what possible comfort could I have in taking such a charge upon me as Fanny?
If I could wish it for my own sake, I would not do so unjust a thing by the poor girl.