Many and many a time already I have longed to leave Egypt, and as often have conquered the wish.

Not because I cannot live without the homage of your sex; of that I have already had more than enough in my life, but because I feel that I, the slave-girl and the despised woman once, am now useful, necessary, almost indispensable indeed, to many free and noble men.

Accustomed as I am, to an extended sphere of work, in its nature resembling a man's, I could not content myself in living for one being alone, however dear.

I should dry up like a plant removed from a rich soil into the desert, and should leave my grandchild desolate indeed, three times orphaned, and alone in the world.

No! I shall remain in Egypt.
"Now that you are leaving, I shall be really indispensable to our friends here.