"You might have just such every day," returned Miss Ri.
"Please to tell me how. Do you mean I could induce Phebe to accept the place of head cook at the hotel?"
"Heaven forbid. No, bat, of course not."
"Why bat?"
"You are so blind, just like most conceited young men who might have homes of their own if they chose."
"Please, Miss Ri, don't be severe. You haven't the right idea at all. Don't you know it is my lack of conceit which prevents my harboring the belief that I could induce anyone to help me to make a home?"
"I don't know anything of the kind. I know it is your selfish love of ease and your desire to shirk responsibility."
"Listen to her, Linda. She will drive me to asking the first girl I meet if she will marry me. You might do it, by the way, and then we might take our revenge by luring Phebe away from her. Of course, Phebe would follow you. I wonder I never thought of that before."
"You are a flippant, senseless trifler," cried Miss Ri with more heat than would appear necessary. "I won't have you talking so of serious subjects."
"So it is a serious subject to your mind?" Berkley laughed gleefully.