Eve regarded him with curiosity.
"Is there no choice?" she asked. "While you have money, couldn't you find some better way of earning a living?"
"I have given it a thought now and then, but it's very doubtful. There's only one thing at which I might have done well, and that's architecture. From studying it just for my own pleasure, I believe I know more about architecture than most men who are not in the profession; but it would take a long time before I could earn money by it. I could prepare myself to be an architectural draughtsman, no doubt, and might do as well that way as drawing machinery. But——"
"Then why don't you go to work! It would save you from living in hideous places."
"After all, does it matter much? If I had anything else to gain. Suppose I had any hope of marriage, for instance——"
He said it playfully. Eve turned her eyes away, but gave no other sign of self-consciousness.
"I have no such hope. I have seen too much of marriage in poverty."
"So have I," said his companion, with quiet emphasis.
"And when a man's absolutely sure that he will never have an income of more than a hundred and fifty pounds——"
"It's a crime if he asks a woman to share it," Eve added coldly.