"I'm serious. Am I really to be your partner in everything?"
"Not to be, but are."
"Well, I don't want you to drag business home with you. I want you to leave business behind and come to me and to your home. I don't want you to think that you have to retail to me every bit of business complexity that turns up. But—dear! I want to have a part in your dreams. I want you to come first to me, always, when you conceive some great ambition. Will you?"
"Always, dear lady! I promise—"
"Wait!" She checked him, finger on lips. "That's not what I want you to promise. I want something far more important to both of us! I want you to promise me just this one thing: That when some real business trouble comes to worry you, you will bring it to me. First to me, ahead of your friends, ahead of your lawyers, ahead of your business men. Not for my poor advice, perhaps, but just to let me share it with you first."
Armstrong, as he smiled at her, wondered why her face was so strained and anxious.
"I promise, lady. Why, dear—you don't think I'd take my troubles to Mac in preference to you?"
"Oh, I'm jealous of course, but that has nothing to do with it. There's a deeper reason that I'm not going to tell now." Her fingers tightened on his arms, tensely earnest. "It's a promise, now?"
"Surely, sweetheart," he said gravely. "Why—lady! You're crying—"
"Because I love you, that's all. Kiss me!"