She went on without waiting for me to reply.
"But I have my daughter to think of," she resumed, "and to add to my anxieties my daughter has given her heart to Mr.Keller's son.

While I and my dear Minna had only our own interests to consider, we might have earned our daily bread together; we might have faced the future with courage.

But what might once have been the calm course of our lives is now troubled by a third person--a rival with me in my daughter's love--and, worse still, a man who is forbidden to marry her.

Is it wonderful that I feel baffled, disheartened, helpless?
Oh, I am not exaggerating! I know my child's nature.

She is too delicate, too exquisitely sensitive, for the rough world she lives in.