“You’re extraordinarily mine, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she nodded, and after a pause, “are you glad?”
He did not give a direct answer.
“You should know. Look! small wife, this is a between-while with us, and I want you to sympathize with the position. I’m all out to win—and I shall win—but I haven’t won yet. Until I do it isn’t possible for us to stand side by side. There’s barely enough to keep one afloat, and that one must be myself. You admit that, don’t you? I’m meeting all sorts of alleged big-wigs, and I must meet ’em level. As things are it is only just possible to do so. To raise the scale at one side, t’other must be kept down. But it won’t be for long, and afterwards it will be you and I—understand.”
“Of course I do.”
“Keep on helping, then, all you can.”
“Of course I will.”
“That’s all right.”
And so the best of us fulfil our obligations and justify our consciences.