"And if you had fifteen hundred to offer Mr. Dawson, what then?"
"What then? Elaine, you're hard on me."
"How hard? I don't mean to be."
"To dangle before my face the things which I most want when you know they're not for me! Why, if I had fifteen hundred pounds, and could go to Dawson with a really serious proposition, the world would become another place; I should see my way to some sort of a career. I'd begin by earning a decent living; in no time I'd be getting together a home; in a year we might be married."
"A year? That's a long time."
He laughed.
"If I were Dawson's partner, with a really substantial share, we might be married right away."
"How soon, from now?"
"Elaine, what are you driving at? what is the use of our deceiving ourselves? I shall become Dawson's partner when pigs have wings, not before. What I have to do is bolt, while there still is time."
There was an interval of silence. They were standing very close together; but he kept his hands in his jacket pockets, as if he were resolved that he would not take her in his arms; while she stood, with downcast eyes, picking at the hem of her dress. When she spoke again it was almost in a whisper.