“I know, Darley. I’m not an absolute cad, and I’m glad you are frank. Doubtless from your point of view I’m a visionary ass. But I don’t see where any one suffers on that account except myself.”
“Don’t see where any one suffers save yourself! Don’t see—! You can’t be serious, man!”
Armstrong had ceased smoking. The pipe lay idle in his fingers.
“No. Come out into the clearing and put it in plain English. Just what do you mean?”
“Since you insist, I mean just this, Armstrong—and if you’ll think a moment you’ll realize for yourself it’s true: you can’t drift on forever the way you’re doing now. If you weren’t engaged it would be different; but you are engaged. Such being the case it implies a responsibility 24 and a big one. To dangle so is unjust to the girl. Let this apply in the abstract. It’s damnably unjust!”
“You think that I—”
“I don’t think at all, I know. We can theorize and moon and drift about in the clouds all we please; but when eventually our pipe goes out and we come down to earth this thing of marriage is practical. It’s give and take, with a whole lot to give. I haven’t been practising law and dealing with marital difficulties, to say nothing of divorces, without getting a few inside facts. Marriages are made in Heaven, perhaps, but married life is lived right here on earth; and the butcher and the rest play leading parts. I recognize I’m leading the procession a bit now, Armstrong; but as I said before, you can’t dangle much longer if you’re an honorable man; and then what I’ve said is right in line. If you’ll take a word of advice that’s intended right, even if it seems patronizing, you’ll wake up right now and begin to steer straight for the flag-pole. If you keep on floundering aimlessly and waiting for an act of Providence you’ll come to grief as surely as to-morrow is coming, old man.”
“And by steering straight you mean to save money. To get my eye on a dollar, leave 25 everything else, and chase it until it drops from fatigue.”
“I mean get power; and dollars are the tangible evidence and manifestation of power. They are the only medium that passes current in any country any day in the year.”
Armstrong smiled, a smile that was not pleasant to see.