"The objection is that Estelle Waldron would do it a thousand times better than I can. She has a more modern outlook and a more modern touch. I feel confident that with me to supply the matter, she would produce a much more attractive and readable work."
Raymond considered.
"I suppose she would. I hadn't thought of her."
"Believe me, she would succeed to admiration. For your sake as well as mine, she would produce a little masterpiece."
"She'd do anything to please you, we all know; but I've no right to bother her with details of business. Of course, if you do it, it is a commission and you would name your honorarium, Uncle Ernest."
The old man laughed.
"We'll see—we'll see. Perhaps I should ask too high a price. But Estelle will not be so grasping. And as to your right to bother her with the details of business, anything she can do for you is a very great privilege to her."
"I believe I owe her more than a man can ever pay a woman, already."
"Most men are insolvent to the other sex. Woman's noble tradition is to give more than she gets, and let us off the reckoning, quite well knowing it beyond our feeble powers to cry quits with her."
Raymond was moved at this challenge, for in the light that Estelle threw upon them, women interested him more to-day than they had for ten years.