"Do you mean you're a duffer?" Biddy asked in alarm.
"Frightful, frightful!"
"So that you intend to give up your work—to let it alone, as you advise me?"
"It has never been my work, all that business, Biddy. If it had it would be different. I should stick to it."
"And you won't stick to it?" the girl said, standing before him open-eyed.
Her brother looked into her eyes a moment, and she had a compunction; she feared she was indiscreet and was worrying him. "Your questions are much simpler than the elements out of which my answer should come."
"A great talent—what's simpler than that?"
"One excellent thing, dear Biddy: no talent at all!"
"Well, yours is so real you can't help it."
"We shall see, we shall see," said Nick Dormer. "Let us go look at that big group."