“You don’t suppose I meant stay and be idle?” she asked. “No, we don’t think idleness agrees very well with you, Bob. You are beginning work on Monday.”
Her tone as well as her words irritated him. “I shall begin to look for something to do,” he said gravely. “And perhaps I shall find something to help the family resources out.”
“You need not look about. Your place is waiting for you. Mr. Emmons has very kindly offered to make you a clerk in his office.”
He laughed. “I think I can do a little better than that,” he said.
“You are hardly in a position to choose. The family resources have had enough of your higher finance, Bob. You must take what is offered to you.”
“It does not attract me—to be Mr. Emmons’s clerk.”
“I am sorry to hear it, but you must do as I tell you, remember.”
“Nellie,” he said, standing in front of the elegant and autocratic creature, “does it occur to you that a man may change in twelve years?”
“It does not seem to me that you are essentially different, unless perhaps in your appearance, which I really think has improved a little.”
“Thanks for the compliment. But I am changed to this extent—you can not dictate to me as you seem to imagine you can. I shall work, because I happen to prefer it, but I shall work how, when, and for whom I please.”