“Please don’t misunderstand me!” she replied quickly. “I’ve every faith in you. But I cannot enter upon a partnership where I can give nothing. Because I’m a girl, you’re generous to me—and I don’t want people to be generous; I can fight my own battles—”
From Bowen broke a sudden ejaculation.
“Great Jehu! Of all the nonsense I ever heard, this is the worst!”
“Well! Isn’t it true?”
“No!” he exclaimed savagely. “It is not true! Not as you think. See here, don’t you like the scheme? Don’t you realize that it’s a big thing if successful?”
“Of course I do. But—if I were not a woman, you’d not offer this partnership.”
It was Bowen’s turn to take the aggressive; he did it with a vim and earnestness that brought the color flooding into her cheeks.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t! It’s because you are a woman that I want you for partner in this business; I need you! Fighting for myself, I’d be apt to do any fool trick. But with your interests hanging on mine, fighting for you as well as for myself, saddled with the responsibility of your trust and your future—why, I’d fight like hell! Excuse me. I didn’t mean that profanely, but literally.
“I tell you frankly, Miss Ferguson, you’d be an inspiration to any man! I don’t talk like this to every woman. I’ve never felt like this before in my life. I never met you before, that’s the reason! When I say I need you for a partner, I mean just that.
“Get angry if you want to; I can’t help it. This isn’t a question of what money you can put in. You can put in your block of stock, for that matter; the rest is personality, outbalancing all the money on earth! You can help me with your advice, your character. I’m not offering you charity, God knows!