“If you had minded your own business you’d be happier now.”
“I was trying to help other people.”
“God helps him who helps himself,” quoted Obadiah, virtuously.
“That doesn’t mean to think only of yourself.”
Her quiet voiced argument infuriated him. “You’ll attend to your own business in the future,” he bellowed.
She did not flinch before his bluster but held her ground in white faced determination. “You want me to lead a life of selfishness when there are so many opportunities to help others?”
“Call it what you like, only get into your head the idea that hereafter you will attend to your own affairs and let the rest of the world do the same.”
Abruptly her mood changed. She gazed at him with a great longing. “Oh, Daddy dear, surely you are not so selfish as all that. I know that deep in your heart you are not.”
For an instant it seemed as if his mood were softening to hers; but his obstinacy reasserted itself and he hardened himself against her appeal. “I have always managed to take care of myself and I expect the other fellow to do the same,” he rapped. “In the future, you and I will follow that course and avoid this sort of trouble.”