"Your real name you will not give?"

     "No: I fear discovery above all things; and whatever disclosure would lead to it, I avoid."

     "You are quite right, I am sure," said Diana. "Now do, brother, let her be at peace a while."

     But when St. John had mused a few moments he recommenced as imperturbably and with as much acumen as ever.

     "You would not like to be long dependent on our hospitality--you would wish, I see, to dispense as soon as may be with my sisters' compassion, and, above all, with my charity (I am quite sensible of the distinction drawn, nor do I resent it--it is just): you desire to be independent of us?"

     "I do: I have already said so. Show me how to work, or how to seek work: that is all I now ask; then let me go, if it be but to the meanest cottage; but till then, allow me to stay here: I dread another essay of the horrors of homeless destitution."