'I've thought about all this, Dan,' he said at length, with an air
of extreme frankness. 'In fact, I meant to have a talk with you. Of
course I can't speak for my sister, and I don't know that I can even
speak to her about it, but one thing I can say, and that is that
she'll never be encouraged by me to think herself better than her
old friends.' He gave a laugh. 'Why, that 'ud be a good joke for a
man in my position! What am I working for, if not to do away with
distinctions between capital and labour? You'll never have my advice
to keep away, Do you suppose I shall cry off with Emma Vine just
because I've and that you know. Why, who am I going to marry myself?
got more money than I used to have?'
Daniel's eye was upon him as he said these words, an eye at once
reflective and scrutinising. Richard felt it, and laughed yet more
scornfully.
'I think we know you better than that,' responded Dabbs. 'But it
ain't quite the same thing, you see. There's many a man high up has
married a poor girl. I don't know how it is; perhaps because women
is softer than men, and takes the polish easier. And then we know
very well how it looks when a man as has no money goes after a girl
as has a lot. No, no; it won't do, Dick.'
It was said with the voice of a man who emphasises a negative in the
hope of eliciting a stronger argument on the other side.
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