I am in a cruel situation.

What a helpless creature is a woman! Were I a man, I could have worked my passage home, or have honestly obtained my bread in this place; but a woman--a young and unprotected woman--in a distant clime, and without a friend--" "Do not say that you are without a friend; one who has at least the will, if not the power to serve you," replied Newton.
"No--not without a friend; but what avails a friend whose assistance I could not accept?
It is to Captain Drawlock, therefore, that I must apply, and, painful as it may be, throw myself upon his generosity; for that reason I wished to see him.

He may advise some means by which I may obtain a passage home.

I will return in any capacity--as a nurse to children, as an attendant--anything that is creditable.

I would watch over the couch of fever, pestilence, and plague, for months, rather than appear to be a party to my father's duplicity.