"To save you from yourself, old man. Here's the heiress you came here to cop out, ready and anxious, everything else coming your way and ... and you're more than half inclined to back out.... You make me tired."
"I suppose I must. But I can't help it. I can't make you see how the thing looks to me. You know—I've written you all about everything— what this place has meant to me. Until I came here I never realised it was in me to make good at anything. But here I have; I'm doing so well that I'd actually have some self-respect if I wasn't bound to play this low-down trick on Josie Lockwood. I've worked and succeeded and been of some service to people who were worth it——"
"Who? Sam Graham?"
"He and his daughter——"
"Oh, his daughter!"
"Now get that foolish idea out of your head; there's nothing in it. Betty's just a simple, sweet little girl, who's had a pretty hard time and never a real chance in life—until I managed to give it to her. And I'd feel pretty good about that if ... Oh, there's no use talking to you!"
"No; go on; you're very entertaining." Kellogg laughed mockingly.
"Well, I have tried to keep to the terms of our understanding; I singled out this Lockwood girl and worked all the degrees—didn't say much, you know—no love-making—just let her catch me looking sadly at her once in a while..."
"That's the way to work it."
"Yes, that's the way," Nat assented gloomily. "But the longer I keep it up the meaner I feel and... I wish you'd agree to call it off. ... These Rubes at first struck me as being nothing but a lot of jay freaks, but when I got to know them I realised they were just as human as we are. I like them now and... on the level, I'm getting kind of stuck on church.... As for work, why, I eat it up!"