She rose and made him a mocking curtsey.
"Thank you, I am quite contented as I am. But let us be serious. Say something to the point. You have heard the story."
"It is an old story," he observed; "love against money. Here is money; here is love." He held out his two hands to represent a pair of scales, one hand raised considerably above the other. "See, my dear, how money weighs down love."
"I see. Your hand with love in it is nearest to heaven; your hand with money in it is nearest to the--other place."
"Perhaps so; perhaps so; but the plot of this play is to be played out on earth, my dear, isn't it? I have seen it a hundred times on the stage, and so have you."
"And love always wins," she said vivaciously. "Yes," rejoined Mr. Nathan drily, "on the stage, always. In real life, never."
"I won't have never!" she cried impetuously. "It does sometimes win, even in this sordid world. And if it never has done so before, it must win now. Why, if your cunning and my wit are not a match for a greedy, worldly, hard-hearted old man, I would as lief have been born without brains as with them!"
"Hush, hush, my dear. Let me think a bit."
He pondered for a little while.
"There was a mathematician--what was his name?--ah! Archimedes--who said he would move the world if he could find a crevice for his lever. My dear, we have neither lever nor crevice. We must get the lever first, and find the crevice. Now where does this old gentleman keep his skeleton?"