"The least I can do is to help grow them again. As a phosphate I might amount to something—if I'm carefully spaded in." And in a lower voice just escaping mockery: "How are you, Virginia?"
"I am perfectly well."
"Are you well enough to sit down and talk to me for half an hour?"
She made no reply.
"Don't be dignified; there is nothing more inartistic, except a woman who is trying to be brave on an inadequate income."
She did not move or look at him.
"Virginia—dear?"
"What?"
"Do you remember that day we met in the surf; and you said something insolent to me, and bent over, laying your palms flat on the water, looking at me over your shoulder?"
"Yes."