“I don't know that it matters,” said Mrs. March. “I had decided not to go there.”
“Had you? This is a surprise.”
“Everything is a surprise to you, Basil, when it happens.”
“True; I keep the world fresh, that way.”
“It wouldn't have been any change to go from one city to another for the summer. We might as well have stayed in New York.”
“Yes, I wish we had stayed,” said March, idly humoring a conception of the accomplished fact. “Mrs. Green would have let us have the gimcrackery very cheap for the summer months; and we could have made all sorts of nice little excursions and trips off and been twice as well as if we had spent the summer away.”
“Nonsense! You know we couldn't spend the summer in New York.”
“I know I could.”
“What stuff! You couldn't manage.”
“Oh yes, I could. I could take my meals at Fulkerson's widow's; or at Maroni's, with poor old Lindau: he's got to dining there again. Or, I could keep house, and he could dine with me here.”