"Persis, where are you going?"
"To the city for a week or so."
Joel deliberated. He rose and paced the room, halting at length in a dramatic posture, face to face with his sister.
"Persis, I've got no love for the city as you well know. As the poet says, 'God the first garden made and the first city, Cain.' But I'm ready to sacrifice myself for what's best for you. I'll go along."
Persis regarded him without any indication of fervent gratitude for the sacrifice so nobly announced.
"It's good of you, Joel, but it won't be necessary."
He waved her protest away with a dominating gesture.
"It is necessary. It won't do to turn a woman like you loose in a city like Boston. As long as you didn't have any money, it wasn't so much matter. But now there'll be folks to sell you gold bricks, and when you unwrap 'em, they won't be nothing but plain ordinary bricks after all."
"They can't sell me bricks if I won't buy 'em, Joel."
"You don't know what they can do. You never went up against a professional sharper. Women ain't any match for that kind. They'll probably give me a bed at the hotel that hasn't been used since sometime last winter, but never mind. I'm going along to protect you."