There's no reason why I shouldn't say, for I wish you to be very frank with me.

I ask because there are two young ladies in this house; and, in a certain way, I have to take the place of a mother to them.

I needn't explain why; you know all the people here, and you understand.

I have nothing to say about them, but I should not be speaking to you now if they were not all rather helpless people.

They do not know the world they have come to live in here, and they cannot help themselves or one another.