"She wouldn't," said Norman. The subject had been driven clean out of his mind, and he didn't wish to return to it. "Some day they will venture to make judicious long cuts in Wagner's operas, and then they'll be interesting. It always amuses me, this reverence of little people for the great ones—as if a great man were always great. No—he is always great. But often it's in a dull way. And the dull parts ought to be skipped."
"I don't like the opera this evening," said she. "What you said a while ago has set me to thinking. Is that girl a lady?"
"She works," laughed he.
"But she might have been a lady."
"I'm sure I don't know."
"Don't you know anything about her?"
"Except that she's trustworthy—and insignificant and not too good at her business."
"I shouldn't think you could afford to keep incompetent people," said the girl shrewdly.
"Perhaps they won't keep her," parried Norman gracefully. "The head clerk looks after those things."
"He probably likes her."