'Not more easily than you give up your music.'
'There's a difference. Do you remember what we were saying, last Wednesday, about simplicity of living?'
'Last Wednesday? It seems a month ago. Yes, I remember.'
'I have thought a good deal of that. I feel how vulgar the life is that most people lead. They can't help it; they think it impossible to do anything else. But I should like to break away from it altogether—to live as I chose, and not care a bit what other people said.'
Harvey had the same difficulty as before in attaching much significance to these phrases. They were pleasant to hear, for they chimed with his own thoughts, but he could not respond with great seriousness.
'The wife of a man with my income won't have much choice, I fancy.'
'How can you say that?' exclaimed Alma. 'You know that most people would take a house in a good part of London, and live up to the last penny—making everyone think that their income must be two or three thousand pounds. I know all about that kind of thing, and it sickens me. There's the choice between vulgar display with worry, and a simple, refined life with perfect comfort. You fancied I should want a house in London?'
'I hardy thought anything about it.'
'But it would ease your mind if I said that I would far rather live in a cottage, as quietly and simply as possible?'
'What does ease my mind—or rather, what makes me very happy, is that you don't refuse to think of giving me your companionship.'