"You despise everyone who isn't as strong as you."
She looked at him intently. "I wonder if you ARE as self-controlled as you imagine. Sometimes I wish you'd get a lesson. Then you'd be more sympathetic. But it isn't likely you will--not through a woman. Oh, they're such pitifully easy game for a man like you.
But then men are the same way with you--quite as easy. You get anything you want. . . . You're really going to stick to Josephine?"
He nodded. "It's time for me to settle down."
"Yes--I think it is," she went on thoughtfully. "I can hardly believe you're to marry. Of course, she's the grand prize. Still--I never imagined you'd come in and surrender. I guess you DO care for her."
"Why else should I marry?" argued he. "She's got nothing I need--except herself, Ursula."
"What IS it you see in her?"
"What you see--what everyone sees," replied Fred, with quiet, convincing enthusiasm. "What no one could help seeing. As you say, she's the grand prize."
"Yes, she is sweet and handsome--and intelligent --very superior, without making others feel that they're outclassed. Still--there's something lacking--not in her perhaps, but in you. You have it for her--she's crazy about you. But she hasn't it for you."
"What?"
"I can't tell you. It isn't a thing that can be put into words."
"Then it doesn't exist."
"Oh, yes it does," cried Ursula. "If the engagement were to be broken--or if anything were to happen to her--why, you'd get over it--would go on as if nothing had happened. If she didn't fit in with your plans and ambitions, she'd be sacrificed so quick she'd not know what had taken off her head. But if you felt what I mean--then you'd give up everything--do the wildest, craziest things."
"What nonsense!" scoffed Norman. "I can im-agine myself making a fool of myself about a woman as easily as about anything else. But I can't imagine myself playing the fool for anything whatsoever."
There was mysterious fire in Ursula's absent eyes.
"You remember me as a girl--how mercenary I was--how near I came to marrying Cousin Jake?"
"I saved you from that."
"Yes--and for what? I fell in love."
"And out again."
"I was deceived in Clayton--deceived myself--naturally. How is a woman to know, without experience?"
"Oh, I'm not criticising," said the brother.
"Besides, a love marriage that fails is different from a mercenary marriage that fails."
"Very--very," agreed he. "Just the difference between an honorable and a dishonorable bankruptcy."
"Anyhow--it's bankrupt--my marriage. But I've learned what love is--that there is such a thing--and that it's valuable. Yes, Fred, I've got the taste for that wine--the habit of it. Could I go back to water or milk?"
"Spoiled baby--that's the whole story. If you had a nursery full of children--or did the heavy house-work--you'd never think of these foolish moonshiny things."
"Yet you say you love!"
"Clayton is as good as any you're likely to run across--is better than SOME I've seen about."
"How can YOU say?" cried she. "It's for me to judge."
"If you would only JUDGE!"
Ursula sighed. "It's useless to talk to you. Let's go down."
Norman, following her from the room, stopped her in the doorway to give her a brotherly hug and kiss.
"You won't make an out-and-out idiot of yourself, will you, Ursula?" he said, in his winning manner.
The expression of her eyes as she looked at him showed how strong was his influence over her. "You know I'll come to you for advice before I do anything final," said she. "Oh, I don't know what I want! I only know what I don't want. I wish I were well balanced--as you are, Fred."
