"Can't I, by God!" Gilbert's voice had changed from its bantering note to a note of resolve. "Do you think I'm going to let my best friend make an ass of himself, and do nothing to prevent him? Quinny, you're an ass! You're too fond of running about saying you can't help this and you can't help that ... and spilling over! And what do you think's going to be the end of this business? I suppose you imagine that Cecily'll change her mind some day, and run away with you? Do you think she'll run away with you when she wouldn't run away with me? Damn you, you've got a nerve to think a thing like that...."
"I don't think that, Gilbert," Henry interjected.
"Oh, yes, you do! Of course, you do! That's natural enough. I wouldn't mind so much if I thought there were a chance that she would run away with you, but she won't!"
"You wouldn't mind!..."
"No. Why should I? If she won't run away with me, she couldn't do better than run away with you. And there'd be a chance then that you'd get on with your job. You'd soon shake down into some sort of balance if you were together, but you'll never get level if you go on in the way you're going now. You'll run up into one emotional crisis and down into another, and you'll spend the time between them in ... in recovering. That's all. And your work will go to blazes. I know, Quinny. You see, I was your predecessor...."
"But Cecily's proud of my work...."
"She was proud of mine. So she said. Look here, Quinny, buck up! How much of your new novel have you written since you knew her!"
"Not very much, of course, but!..."
"Exactly. I couldn't work either when ... when I was your predecessor. Cecily's greedy, Quinny! She wants all of you ... and she has the power to make you give the whole of yourself to her. If you think that 'all for love and the world well lost' is the right motto for a man ... then Cecily's your woman. But is it? Hang it all, Quinny, you haven't done your work yet ... you've only begun to do it!"
He got off the table and began to search among Henry's papers.