"But all the time Amy had been there. Do you understand! Like a spirit, I mean! She had Joe first! She had shaped him!"
"Yes—"
"And so when he loved me even more, I do believe, than he ever loved her—still he did the thing she would have wanted. Amy had taught him to show his love by loading money on his wife. And that was what started everything wrong. For he got rich—for my sake—and the money brought Amy's friends back in a horde! Oh, now I'm repeating! I've said all that—"
"Please say it again! You're doing so well!" Ethel told about Fanny and the rest. "I tried to like them—honestly! But I simply couldn't!" she cried.
"Why couldn't you? Tell me plainly just what it was you wanted."
"What I wanted? Plainly? Oh, dear—I can't exactly—"
"What kind of people?"
Ethel frowned.
"Not just eaters!" she exclaimed. "I wanted men and women who—well, who were seeing something big—and beautiful and real in life! Life is so hard and queer in this town—so awfully crowded and mixed up—and empty, somehow. You know how I mean? But they see something in it all. Not clearly—it's way off, you know. And they're busy of course, and by no means saints. They have their worries and their faults and pettiness—they're human, too, But they're looking for something really worth while! Oh, I can't express it—I really can't!"
"Oh, yes you can, you've done quite well," said Mrs. Crothers steadily. "And now to narrow this down to Joe, you wanted him to be like that—in his work and so in his life with you. Was that it?"