cried.

Her father had always been very tender, very patient towards her mother,
but she had not expected to find him so changed. He had aged and his
shoulders drooped. She had been afraid that he would want her to stay
with him and take charge of the house. It had worried her considerably.
It would be so difficult to refuse, and yet she would have to. But when
he never broached the subject she was hurt. He had questioned her about
her plans the day after the funeral, and had seemed only anxious to
assist them. She proposed continuing at Cambridge till the end of the
term. She had taken her degree the year before. After that, she would
go to London and commence her work.

"Let me know what allowance you would like me to make you, when you have
thought it out. Things are not what they were at the works, but there
will always be enough to keep you in comfort," he had told her. She had
fixed it there and then at two hundred a year. She would not take more,
and that only until she was in a position to keep herself.

"I want to prove to myself," she explained, "that I am capable of earning
my own living. I am going down into the market-place. If I'm no good,
if I can't take care of even one poor woman, I'll come back and ask you
to keep me." She was sitting on the arm of his chair, and laughing, she
drew his head towards her and pressed it against her. "If I succeed, if
I am strong enough to fight the world for myself and win, that will mean
I am strong enough and clever enough to help others."

"I am only at the end of a journey when you need me," he had answered,
and they had kissed. And next morning she returned to her own life.