Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

“ Frances inspected the new pocketbook he had bought her, so unnecessarily and unsuitably costly, and then again at Lionel’s happy face. And she would have liked to cry out what she and all women know enough to conceal:
“Oh, my love, I want to protect you, to care for you, to shield your raw pride, forever and ever to stand between you and the world!”
And that mustn’t be said. She knew she must call his weakness strength, or she would destroy him. No man must ever see his true self mirrored in a woman’s eyes. ”

“ He never urged him to go into business; he was quite satisfied that he should go his own dazzling way. For Horace was not the classic business man of stage and story, who despises and berates the idler; he was something much newer, the money-maker who is apologetic and secretly bewildered; who feels called upon to justify his activity. Lionel was what he would have liked to be, only that he knew it to be impossible. He acknowledged that they were of different clay.
He told Frankie how Lionel had no idea of time, and was always late. ”

“ At last she was pleased by a grey broadcloth suit.
“Oh, yes!” cried Frankie, ironically. “A hundred and fifty dollars is just what I always pay!”
“I’m going to get it for you.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t!” she protested, shocked.
“You must. To make up for all I said that night,” whispered the authoress. “Be generous, Frances! Don’t be petty!”
She allowed herself to be persuaded, accepted the suit and with it a new hat and blouse. She felt guilty and ashamed and yet delighted. She was so very anxious to make a favourable impression on this brother Horace. ”