It'd never
occur to you to shuffle out of trying to keep your word."
"It hasn't--so far," said Susan.
"Well--that's the only sort of thing worth talking about as
morality. Believe me, for I've been through the whole game
from chimney pots to cellar floor."
"There's another thing, too," said the girl.
"What's that?"
"Not to injure anyone else."
Palmer shook his head positively. "It's believing that and
acting on it that has kept you down in spite of your brains
and looks."
"That I shall never do," said the girl. "It may be
weakness--I guess it is weakness. But--I draw the line there."
"But I'm not proposing that you injure anyone--or proposing to
do it myself. As I said, I've got up where I can afford to be
good and kind and all that. And I'm willing to jump you up
over the stretch of the climb that can't be crossed without
being--well, anything but good and kind."
She was reflecting.
"You'll never get over that stretch by yourself. It'll always
turn you back."
"Just what do you propose?" she asked.
It gave her pleasure to see the keen delight her question,
with its implication of hope, aroused in him. Said he:
"That we go to Europe together and stay over there several
years--as long as you like as long as it's necessary. Stay
till our pasts have disappeared--work ourselves in with the
right sort of people. You say you're not married?"
"Not to the man I'm with.
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