"I shan't be able to stay here.

Oh! _why_ didn't poor papa send me to live with you ?" Why indeed?
That is exactly what the professor finds great difficulty in explaining to her.

An "old man" of "fifty" might very easily give a home to a young girl, without comment from the world.

But then if an "old man of fifty" _wasn't_ an old man of fifty----The professor checks his thoughts, they are growing too mixed.
"We should have been _so_ happy," Perpetua is going on, her tone regretful.

"We could have gone everywhere together, you and I.I should have taken you to the theatre, to balls, to concerts, to afternoons.