'Prove it'said Dane quietly, laying Ischl out of his hands and taking up another photograph, beautifully executed, of Monteverde's marble "Genius of Franklin." This so excited Primrose's interest and curiosity, that Mrs. Coles for a little while could not get in a word. She sat, no doubt mentally cursing the fine arts, and photography which had come to multiply the fruits of them.
'Dane,' she began with restrained impatience as soon as she saw a chance, 'why cannot you attend to the rich, as well as to the poor?'
'For the way you want me to attend to the rich, time fails. And money. And I may add, strength.'
'You and Hazel have no end of money,' said Mrs. Coles impatiently.
'It will not do all we want it to do, with the best economy.'
Mrs. Coles was silent a minute, remembering her two silks, one of which she had on at this very time, and how handsome they were; and her thought glanced to Prim's trunk, and the new secretaries, and the library carpet. She spoke with a somewhat lowered tone.
'Won't you ask anybody to your house, Dane, if he happens to be rich?'
'Not unless I have some other reason for asking him.Heinert went off to-day, Hazel,'Dane added with a change of tone.
'But Dane,' Mrs. Coles said despairingly, 'you are flying in the face of Society.'
'Mistaken, Prue; my face is turned in quite another direction,' said Dane with a slight glance at his wife which conveyed very merry and sweet private intelligence. He had just received a small parcel from Byrom, and was unrolling it in his hands; which also drew Mrs. Coles' attention and stopped the flow of her arguments. When the last fold of soft paper came off, there appeared a tiny clock; so tiny that at first nobody understood what it was; but as Dane set it upon the mantelpiece it struck the hour. The notes were like silver bells, so liquid, clear and musical, that there was a general exclamation of delight.