“Yes,” she said, “I do. If I had been poor, you wouldn’t have spoken, would you?”
“I should not.”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t enough to keep you—us as we should be kept.”
Athalia laughed.
“ ‘I could not love thee, dear, so much,’ ” she quoted, “ ‘loved I not comfort more.’ ”
“My dear,” said Punch, “that was most admirably put. It exactly represents my point of view, your point of view and the point from which, furiously as they would deny the impeachment, every rational male and female in this edifice views the rich vale of matrimony.”
Miss Choate raised her sweet eyebrows.
“We are a topping lot of wash-outs, aren’t we?” she said.
Fairfax shook his head.