"You know well enough," she returned. "You have played off the whole
University against my poor house, and you have won. Your influence with
the president, your brother on the board of trustees … If Bertram
Cope has any gratitude in his composition…."
"Oh, well," she let him say, "I don't feel that I did much; and I'm not sure I'm glad for what I did do."
"You may regret it, of course. That other man is an uncertain quantity."
"Oh, come," he said; "you've had the inside track from the very start: this house and everything in it…."
"You have a house of your own, now."
"Your dinners and entertainments…."
"You have your own dinner-table."
"Your limousine, your chauffeur,—running to the opera and heaven knows where else…."
"Taxis can always be had. Yes," she went on, "you have held the advantage over a poor woman cooped up in her own house. While I have had to stick here, attending to my housekeeping, you have been careering about everywhere,—you with a lot of partners and clerks in your office, and no compulsion to look in more than two or three times a week. Of course you can run to theatres and clubs. I wonder they don't dispense with you altogether!"
"There's the advantage of a business arranged to run itself—so far as I am concerned."