“am for your kind and generous offer, but I must decline. My conscience urges me not to give up on the mission your government has entrusted to me, to help those women.” “Who are they to you?” Captain Thorpe burst out. “They are no your mother, or your sisters!” His passion surprised Miriam, though the injury and pain in his eyes should have warned her of a squall. “I know that. I do not venture into this because they are my sisters, or some fantasy of a better mother than the one I have.” Miriam paused a moment, a little shocked at that idea. “I do it because they are people, like you and me.”