Submissive, if frightened and repelled, yet with a heart where hope fluttered, she surrendered him her lips.
CHAPTER XXVI
'I don't approve and I don't disapprove,' snarled Farwell. 'I'm not my sister's keeper. I don't pretend to think it noble of you to live with a man you don't care for, but I don't say you're wrong to do it.'
'But really,' said Victoria, 'if you don't think it right to do a thing, you must think it wrong.'
'Not at all. I am neutral, or rather my reason supports what my principles reject. Thus my principles may seem unreasonable and my reasoning devoid of principle, but I cannot help that.'
Victoria thought for a moment. She was about to take a great step and she longed for approval.
'Mr Farwell,' she said deliberately, 'I've come to the conclusion that you are right. We are crabs in a bucket and those at the bottom are no nobler than those on the top, for they would gladly be on the top. I'm going on the top.'
'Sophist,' said Farwell smiling.
'I don't know what that means,' Victoria went on; 'I suppose you think that I'm trying to cheat myself as to what is right. Possibly, but I don't profess to know what is right.'