“I suppose you would call that a self-respecting statement? All right, we’ll give it the benefit of my doubt that it is mere vanity. I did love what I thought you were. But that was taken away, like my mother—like Jack.”
She showed the flurry that caught her up whenever inspired by one of her “brainy” thoughts.
“Has a man a right to think things about a woman which aren’t true, marry her on the strength of them and then blame her for the rest of their unnatural lives because he made a mistake?”
“In our case I had—every right. Have you forgotten the details of our first meeting, Catherine? Your father had invited me to the house really to see you, not the pictures he hoped to sell me. Your mother had selected me, sight unseen, by virtue of my bank account. They helped you to make an impression on me which all of you knew to be false. You were dressed in white, which you afterward told me you never expected to wear again until your funeral. You looked innocent and tender and dependent—all of which you were not. You sat upon a hassock and played with a white Persian kitten—oh, every detail of the studied effect made a lasting impression upon me! You had well-developed claws then, but you held them in far more carefully than did the kitten. Later, I learned, with quite a shock, that you detested cats. Yet you held this one to your cheek and understudied its appeal to the best of your feline ability.”
“Thanks for admitting that I have some sort of ability,” the gentle voice purred.
“You have more than ability. You have positive power.”
“My dear John! But don’t pay me all your stored-up compliments in one visit. Save some and call again.”
“You have that most potent of acquisitive forces, unassailable egotism. I used to look into the faces of the painted parasites riding along Fifth Avenue in their cars and wonder why so much was laid at their feet. That was before I learned—you.”
“To think that you, John, should learn anything from me!”
“Egotism is the most acquiring force in the world. All great men have it, but in them it is covered or excused by their greatness. All women successful with men have it to the degree of a sort of hypnotism. They blind men to what they are with the bright light of what they think they are. You, for instance, think so well of yourself that one needs strong lenses to see your faults. I used to hope that you’d dim some day—have a doubt of yourself. But you never did. You are all strength in your egotism.”