as your relative, but you know what I feel for
Althea, and you'll forgive my saying that if I'm not big enough for her
he isn't big enough either; no, upon my soul, he isn't.'

Helen's eyes dwelt on him. She knew that, with all the forces of
concealment at her command, she wanted to keep from Mr. Kane the
blighting irony of her own inner comments; above everything, now, she
dreaded lest her irony should touch one of Mr. Kane's ideals. It was so
beautiful of him to think himself not big enough for Althea, that she
was well content that he should see Gerald in the same category of
unfitness. Perhaps Gerald was not big enough for Althea; Gerald's
bigness didn't interest Helen; the great point for her was that Mr. Kane
should not guess that she considered Althea not big enough for him. 'If
Gerald is the lucky man,' she said, after the pause in which she gazed
at him; 'if she cares enough for Gerald to marry him, then I think he
will make her happy; and that's the chief thing, isn't it?'

Mr. Kane could not deny that it was, and yet, evidently, he was not
satisfied. 'I believe you'll forgive me if I go on,' he said. 'You see
it's so tremendously important to me, and what I'm going to say isn't
really at all offensive--I mean, people of your world and Mr. Digby's
world wouldn't find it so. I'll tell you the root of my trouble, Miss
Buchanan. Your friend is a poor man, isn't he, and Althea is a fairly
rich woman. Can you satisfy me on this point? I can give Althea up; I
must give her up; but I can hardly bear it if I'm to give her up to a
mere fortune-hunter, however happy he may be able to make her.'

Helen's cheeks had coloured slightly. 'Gerald isn't a mere
fortune-hunter,' she said. 'People of my world do think fortune-hunting
offensive.'

'Forgive me then,' said Franklin, gazing at her, contrite but
unperturbed. 'I'm very ignorant of your world. May I put it a little
differently. Would Mr. Digby be likely to fall in love with a woman if
she hadn't a penny?'

She had quite forgiven him. She smiled a little in answering. 'He has
often fallen in love with women without a penny, but he could hardly
marry a woman who hadn't one.'

'He wouldn't wish to marry Althea, then, if she had no money?'

'However much he would wish it, I don't think he would be so foolish as
to do it,' said Helen.

'Can't a man worth his salt work for the woman he loves?'

'A man well worth his salt may not be trained for making money,' Helen