"We cannot serve two masters, and in these times I beg you not to trouble me with questions and matters that don't concern you.

To direct the business of the city is my affair; you have your invalid, the children, the poor; let that suffice." Without waiting for her reply he left the room, while she stood motionless, gazing after him.
Barbara watched her anxiously for several minutes, then busied herself with the papers on her brother's writing-table, saying as if to herself, though turning slightly towards her sister-in-law: "Evil times! Let every one, who is not oppressed with such burdens as Peter, thank the Lord.

He has to bear the responsibility of everything, and people can't dance lightly with hundred-pound weights on their legs.

Nobody has a better heart, and nobody means more honestly.

How the traders at the fair praised his caution! In the storm people know the pilot, and Peter was always greatest, when things were going worst.
He knows what he is undertaking, but the last few weeks have aged him years." Maria nodded.