Nash had a grave pause. "And are you now?"
"Oh dear, yes."
"That would be better—if it wasn't worse."
"Nothing could be better," Nick declared. "It's the best thing that can happen to me."
"Well," his friend continued, "you must let me very respectfully approach this lady. You must let me bring her round."
"Bring her round to what?"
"To everything. Talk her over."
"Talk her under!" Nick laughed—but making his joke a little as to gain time. He remembered the effect this adviser had produced on Julia—an effect that scantly ministered to the idea of another meeting. Julia had had no occasion to allude again to Nick's imperturbable friend; he had passed out of her life at once and for ever; but there flickered up a quick memory of the contempt he had led her to express, together with a sense of how odd she would think it her intended should have thrown over two pleasant visits to cultivate such company.
"Over to a proper pride in what you may do," Nash returned—"what you may do above all if she'll help you."
"I scarcely see how she can help me," said Nick with an air of thinking.