“You are very deft.”
“So are you. I was going to cut up your perch for you, but I saw that you didn’t need me.”
Marvin soberly began to eat his shortcake.
“Miss Jean, your hands do so many beautiful things that they ought to be worth a great deal of money. But I have only one hand, whether to do things with or to offer in marriage. I have a proposal to make to you.”
Dr. Rich glanced up in alarm, but Marvin went on calmly.
“I can’t wash my own hand. Please consider a proposition to wash it for me every day. I am willing to pay a dollar a wash. Don’t you think I ought, doctor?”
“Marvin, I do not. I enjoy your fun, but pray don’t carry it too far.”
“But haven’t you noticed how enterprising your daughter is getting to be? She is going to collect bills of Indians, and after dinner she is going to take my last cent. I don’t even dare to ask her the time of the day without adding, ‘How much?’”
The doctor smiled. “When you find the answer to that question, I wish you’d let me know. The value of the time of day is often infinite. So is that of commercial rectitude. How honest ought a man to be? He ought to be infinitely honest. Of course he can’t be, but he ought to be. So if you young folks are about to consider your infinite obligations to each other, I think I’ll go and take a nap.”
They rose while he left the room, and then sat down again.