"Well, take my advice and hold on to them—to every cent you have.
Where do you keep them?"
"In the bank … in a safe-deposit vault—Oh, how careless of me! I've left the key out on the table! I usually keep it … you remember … in the secret drawer of the cabinet."
"How I wish I had the courage to write a story about a secret drawer of an old Italian cabinet! … I wouldn't leave it lying about; although, of course, no one could use it without a pass also."
"A what?"
"They use every precaution. I know, because when I nursed old Mrs.
Beresford for eight months, I was sent down to the vault twice."
Alexina's head was whirling. The blood burned and beat in her face.
"Even with her signature I couldn't get by the keeper the first time because he didn't know me. I had to be identified by her lawyer."
"I like to feel so well taken care of. What shall you do if your novel is a great success? Of course it will be. You would never go on being a nurse."
"I am not so sure it will be a success. Neither is my publisher. He wrote me a half-whimsical half-complimentary letter saying that I must remember the average reader was utterly commonplace, with no education in the higher sense, no imagination, had an extremely limited vocabulary and thought and talked in ready-made phrases, composed for the most part of the colloquialisms of the moment. Style, distinction of mind, erected an almost visible wall between the ambitious writer and this predominant class. If they found this sort of book interesting-which as a rule they did not—they felt a sullen sense of inferiority; and if there were too many unfamiliar words they pitched it across the room with the ultimate adjective of their disapproval—'highbrow.' But it is more the general atmosphere they resent—would resent if the book were purposely written with the most limited vocabulary possible."
"Our national self-sufficiency, I suppose. Also the fetish of equality that still persists. We are the greatest nation on earth, of course, but it isn't democratic for any one of us to be greater than the other."