Of course, I had to have my say out."
She made him go all over his talk with Dryfoos again, and report his own
language precisely. From time to time, as she got his points, she said,
"That was splendid," "Good enough for him!" and "Oh, I'm so glad you said
that to him!" At the end she said:
"Well, now, let's look at it from his point of view. Let's be perfectly
just to him before we take another step forward."
"Or backward," March suggested, ruefully. "The case is simply this: he
owns the magazine."
"Of course."
"And he has a right to expect that I will consider his pecuniary
interests--"
"Oh, those detestable pecuniary interests! Don't you wish there wasn't
any money in the world?"
"Yes; or else that there was a great deal more of it. And I was perfectly
willing to do that. I have always kept that in mind as one of my duties
to him, ever since I understood what his relation to the magazine was."
"Yes, I can bear witness to that in any court of justice. You've done it
a great deal more than I could, Basil. And it was just the same way with
those horrible insurance people."
"I know," March went on, trying to be proof against her flatteries, or at
least to look as if he did not deserve praise; "I know that what Lindau
said was offensive to him, and I can understand how he felt that he had a
right to punish it.
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