“You prefer your patient to me, then?”
“To see you would have been a pleasure; to stay there was a duty.”
“Even when I had desired you to come back at once?”
“That couldn’t alter my duty.”
“Indeed?” Dick lifted his eyebrows. “Then my wishes have no weight with you whatever?”
“They have great weight with me, but mine ought to have just as much with you.”
“This is rather a new theory,” said Dick, with elaborate politeness. “Is its application intended to be permanent, or only temporary?”
“I see no reason to anticipate any change that would render it out of date.”
“Thank you. That’s pretty clear, at any rate. Perhaps you will kindly explain to me your views of the marriage relation? So far as I can see, they involve two heads of one house.”
“I don’t want to discuss the question now, especially since we used to argue it so often in the old days,” said Georgia; “but if you insist upon it, I will. I know very well that there can be only one head, practically speaking, to a household—that when two people ride one horse, one must ride behind—and because I love you and trust you, I am quite willing to take the second place. But I do expect to be consulted as to the way the horse is to go. You could never have imagined that I would allow myself to be carried off anywhere blindfold. I think that we should discuss everything together and agree upon our course, and if at any time circumstances should prevent our discussing some special plan, I expect you to trust me if I find it necessary to act on my own responsibility, just as I should be ready to trust you in a like case.”