“In building up great enterprises. I am founding a city just now, for instance, where there was nothing but a swamp beside a lake, and——”
“In making more and more money for yourself,” she cut in, “you think only of yourself.”
“And you—what do you think of?” said I.
“Not of myself,” cried she indignantly. “Never of myself. Of Margot. Of you. Of the family. I am working to build us up—to make us somebody and not mere low money grubbers.”
I did not see it from her point of view. But I was not inclined to aggravate her excitement and anger.
“Why shouldn’t you use your powers for some unselfish purpose?” she went on. “Why not try to have higher ambition?”
I observed her narrowly. She was sincere.
“I want you to help me—for Margot’s sake, for your own sake,” she went on in a kind of exaltation. “Margot is coming on. She’ll be out in less than three years. We’ve got to make a position for her.”
“I thought, up there at Miss Ryper’s she was——”
“That shows how little interest you take!” cried Edna. “Don’t you know what is happening? Why, already the fashionable girls at her school are beginning to shy off from her——”