"I only want to succeed now, in order that I may have the more to offer to you," continued Paul, "I feel that money is worth getting because it will give you ease; power, because it will give you rank; and fame, because it will give you pleasure. I used to care for these things for their own sake, now I only care for them for yours; and consequently I care ten times more for them than I used to do, and am ten times more keen on winning them. By Jove! if only I had Edgar Ford's chances, wouldn't I make my wife one of the most envied women in London!"
"Yet Edgar will never do much," said Isabel.
"I know he won't; that is the pity of it. If I were in Edgar's place, with all his advantages, I would be in the Government before I was forty. As for him, he will either not go into Parliament at all, or else throw up all chance of office by figuring as an independent member. As if a great empire could be governed by a bundle of fads!"
"Edgar is really an ascetic," said Isabel.
"Edgar is really an ass," said Paul.
Isabel shook her head. "He is a perfect angel in some things."
"And a perfect ass in others," repeated her lover.
"It is not always easy to tell the difference between an ass and an angel," remarked Isabel; "it confused Balaam a good deal, don't you remember? When he thought that it was only an ass that was hindering him on his journey, it turned out to be really the angel of the Lord. And Balaam's is not an uncommon mistake."
"Sweetheart, you are ingenious."
"I was only trying to keep you from repeating Balaam's blunder."