She looked suddenly up at him from under the engaging little hat, and said with a smile that was meant to be quite easy and derisive, but hardly managed to be that:
"Supposing that you do know me, as you say, and that I came to you to prescribe for me--as a sort of happiness doctor.... Would you say that to give away everything I had--or papa had--would be the one way for me to be--happy?"
"Happy?..."
He curled and recurled the corners of the Heth cards, which did not improve their appearance. He gazed down at the work of his hands, and there seemed to be no color in his face.
"To be happy.... Oh, no, I shouldn't think that you--that any one--could be happy just through an act, like that."
"I could hardly give away more than everything all of us had, could I?"
"Well, but don't you think of happiness as a frame of mind, a--a sort of habit of the spirit? Don't you think it comes usually as a--a by-product of other things?"
"Oh, but I'm asking you, you see.... What sort of things do you mean?"
He hesitated perceptibly, seeming to take her light derisive remarks with a strange seriousness.
"Well, I think a--a good rule is to ... to cultivate the sympathies all the time, and keep doing something useful."