Kit laid out a box of cigarettes and held a light for Helen, who accepted it with her eyes fastened on his as she drew her cigarette into a glow.
“Fine, Kit! This is the kind I like. Nice boy; you’d never offer me feminine substitutes, would you? Say, Kit, I was looking at you. You’re not a genius, but you have sense. I believe I honestly do want your opinion, though I set out to ask it in order to be nice, rather than from actual craving for it,” she said.
“Go to it, Helen!” said Kit, throwing himself into a deep chair and his used match into a small hammered dish at the same time. “What’s wrong? I suppose I should say: Who is it? since it’s a girl’s confidence that I’m to receive.”
“Oh, piffle, Kit! You know me better than that,” cried Helen. “In fact, it’s the opposite sort of confidence. I’m not a bad-looking girl, you know. Kit——” She paused.
“Ripping. Stunning,” said Kit.
“And my father is at once a coming man and a man that has arrived,” Helen nodded acknowledgment of Kit’s interpolation, “so men, several, want to marry me! Kit, I’m trying to decide whether I’ll ever marry, or go in for a career. Now, just wait! I’ve brains as well as looks; I sing well, but not well enough to follow it up too far. My father could get me pretty much anything I wanted. I don’t care to marry as most women do. I know precisely its value, both as an arrangement, we’ll call it, and as a supplement to a clever, handsome woman’s assets. But I can get on without marrying; in fact, I’m not sure I’d be happy married. I think I can reach my goal, in the shape of a career, just as well unencumbered. What would you say to me as a Power, a Lady-with-a-Salon, a Personage to be Reckoned With in the State at Washington? Look here, Kit, wouldn’t that be a game to play alone? I’d lose a lot of my winnings with a partner. And besides, I couldn’t carry out the game if I married for love. A friendly, able partner would be the only one for that, and they’re not common. Men aren’t often friendly to a girl who is ripping, as you call it.”
“Well, my gracious, Helen, what makes you put it up to me? What do I know about it? And exactly what are you getting at?” cried Kit, perturbed.
“Because, Kit, and you’d have seen this if you weren’t the sort you are, there’s a man who wants me bad; right away, too! And I don’t know. He’s richer than the Ind. I like him, but he loves me. That’s likely to be a nuisance. It wouldn’t do, would it? And I’ve got to decide pretty soon as to him, and I’d like to decide as to myself, too, and get about my job. It’s tiresome to hang along, and time is valuable. Youth for beginnings, you know.”
Helen waited, and Kit looked at her from a new angle. He did not know this Helen. He saw her with eyes that viewed her as a man sees a woman who is desired by other men. And how mistaken his aunt had been to think that she was ready to marry him! She was not considering him; she was frankly his old friend who liked, trusted, consulted him. In this rôle he liked her.
“Well, Nell,” he said, slowly, “I don’t quite see how I can answer you. You’re hard on this man, on all the men you know and whom you don’t care to marry. It’s wasteful for a woman like you, with all you are and have, not to marry, isn’t it?”