"We men!" and the General shrugged his shoulders.
"One man, then," said the lady, on seeing that he was disposed to claim a monopoly in the wisdom of business.
"Do you remember one little item—a modest little item—concerning my foreign deposits? Eh?"
"Little item, General! What are you doing with so much money over there?"
"Nothing, or next to nothing. That's my anchor to windward."
"It will hold," responded the lady, "if weight is all that's needed."
"I intend that it shall hold, and that it shall be larger before it is smaller."
"I don't understand it;" and Mrs. Dillingham shook her pretty head.
Mr. Belcher sat and thought. There was a curious flush upon his face, as he raised his eyes to hers, and looked intensely into them, in the endeavor to read the love that hid behind them. He was desperately in love with her. The passion, a thousand times repelled by her, and a thousand times diverted by the distractions of his large affairs, had been raised to new life by his last meeting with her; and the determinations of his will grew strong, almost to fierceness. He did not know what to say, or how to approach the subject nearest to his heart. He had always frightened her so easily; she had been so quick to resent any approach to undue familiarity; she had so steadily ignored his insinuations, that he was disarmed.
"What are you thinking about, General?"