“Love weakness! Oh! Why, there is no such mighty power in the whole universe as love! It is omnipotent! It is hatred that is weak!”
Ames made a little gesture of contempt. “We argue from different standpoints,” he said. “I am a plain, matter-of-fact, cold-blooded business man. There is no love in business!”
“And that,” she replied in a voice tinged with sadness, “is why business is such chaos; why there is so much failure, so much anxiety, fear, loss, and unhappiness in the business world. Mr. Ames, you haven’t the slightest conception of real business, have you?”
She sat for a moment in thought. Then, brightly, “I am in business, Mr. Ames––?”
“Humph! I am forced to agree with you there! The business of attempting to annihilate me!”
“I am in the business of reflecting good to you, and to all mankind,” she gently corrected.
“Then suppose you manifest your love for me by refraining from meddling further in my affairs. Suppose from now on you let me alone.”
“Why––I am not meddling with you, Mr. Ames!”
“No?” He opened a drawer of the desk and took out several copies of the Express. “I am to consider that this is not strictly meddling, eh?” he continued, as he laid the papers before her.
“No, not at all,” she promptly replied. “That’s uncovering evil, so’s it can be destroyed. All that evil, calling itself you and your business, has got to come to the surface––has got to come up to the light, so that it can be––”