I've ways of finding out things. And I know you'd not be here
if you hadn't broken with the other fellow first. So, if I
turned your proposition down you'd be up against it--wouldn't you?"
"Yes," said she. "But--I won't in any circumstances tie
myself. I must be free."
"You're right," said he. "And I'll risk your sticking. I'm
a good gambler."
"If I were bound, but didn't want to stay, would I be of much use?"
"Of no use. You can quit on seven minutes' notice, instead of
seven days."
"And you, also," said she.
Laughingly they shook hands. She began to like him in a new
and more promising way. Here was a man, who at least was cast
in a big mold. Nothing small and cheap about him--and Brent
had made small cheap men forever intolerable to her. Yes,
here was a man of the big sort; and a big man couldn't
possibly be a bad man. No matter how many bad things he might
do, he would still be himself, at least, a scorner of the
pettiness and sneakiness and cowardice inseparable from villainy.
"And now," said he, "let's settle the last detail. How much
a week? How would five hundred strike you?"
"That's more than twelve times the largest salary I ever got.
It's many times as much as I made in the----"
"No matter," he hastily interposed. "It's the least you can
hold down the job on. You've got to spend money--for clothes
and so on."
"Two hundred is the most I can take," said she.
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