"How soon will the novelty tire you?"
"I have not considered you as a novelty."
"But I am; I'm a mechanical toy. My paint soon comes off, cousin."
"You're my own kin. There's no novelty, as you call it, in kinship, nothing evanescent."
She said: "Do you really and deliberately desire to stand by that extremely tenuous and attenuated tie? An attitude of that sort entails duties. You may have much to overlook in us—even much to forgive. Are you aware of your responsibilities?"
"I assumed them when I asked to be admitted to your partnership."
"Why did you ask to join?"
"The real reason?"
She hesitated, looking at him.
"Yes, the real one."