"But they can't always resign,"
"Why not?"
"Because of you and me and the children!"
"Oh, don't worry about it! They don't worry. That's what I like a man for.
If he's good for anything, he isn't perpetually pawing himself over."
This did not seem wholly to satisfy Alice, but she leaned over Isabelle and kissed her:—
"Only get well, my dear, and paw some of your notions over,—it won't do you any harm!"
That evening when the Lanes were alone, after they had discussed the topics that Isabelle had enumerated, with the addition of the arrangements for the trip to the Springs, Isabelle asked casually:—
"John, is it easy to be honest in business?"
"That depends," he replied guardedly, "on the business and the man. Why?"
"You don't believe what those magazine articles say about the Senator and the others?"