"That's all I can call my really own."
"And you consider that insufficient?" asked the Tyro, in a queer, strained voice.
"Not as long as papa pays my principal bills," she explained. "But of course, to live on—" An expressive shrug furnished the conclusion.
"For some years I lived on less than a tenth of it," said he.
"No! It couldn't be done."
"Don't you know anything at all about life?" he demanded, almost angrily.
"Of course I do. But I don't bother about money and such things."
"I do. I've had to all my life. Even now, when I consider myself very well off, I can make only a little more than the income which you consider mere pin-money."
"Yet you can buy houses on the Battery," she insinuated.
"Only through the option that gives me the inside track. And even that will make a huge hole in my pile."