She
began to feel helpless in his hands--and began to respect him whom
she could not fool.
"I know," he went on, "you're too intelligent not to have
appreciated that either we must live on my salary or I must leave
public life."
He laughed--a quiet, amused laugh, different from any she had ever
heard from him. Evidently, Joshua Craig in intimacy was still
another person from the several Joshua Craigs she already knew.
"And," said he, in explanation of his laughter, "I thought you
married me because I had political prospects. I fancied you had
real ambition....I might have known! According to the people of
your set, to be in that set is to have achieved the summit of
earthly ambition--to dress, to roll about in carriages, to go from
one fussy house to another, from one showy entertainment to
another, to eat stupid dinners, and caper or match picture cards
afterward, to grin and chatter, to do nothing useful or even
interesting--" He laughed again, one of his old-time, boisterous
outbursts. But it seemed to her to fit in, to be the laughter of
mountain and forest and infinity of space at her and her silly
friends. "And you picture ME taking permanent part in that show,
or toiling to find you the money to do it with.
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