"Then we must live on what I have left, and you know what taxes are. I suppose I had better look for a job." "What?" He seemed to spring out of his apathy, and stared at her incredulously. "You?" "Yes. We must have more money. I could sell the flats and go into the decorating business." "And advertise to all San Francisco that I am a failure! Do you think I could fool them then!" "Are you sure you have fooled them now! They must know you would have stuck to the old business if it had paid." "It isn't the first time a man has changed his business. But if you go out to earn money--why, I'd be a laughing stock." "Then we shall have to give up the house. The city has long wanted this lot--" "That would never do, either. Everybody knows how devoted you are to your old home ... and after fixing it up...." "Well, what, do you suggest? You know perfectly well we can't go on." "My brain seems to have stopped. I can't do much thinking. But ... well ... you might sell the flats and we could go on as before until my business begins to pay." "Sacrifice more of my capital? That I won't do. Why don't you see if you can get back with Cheever Harrison and Cheever? I know that Bob--" "I won't go back to being a salaried man. You can't go back like that when you've been in the other class." He beat a fist into a palm. "Why couldn't Bob Cheever have left me alone? So long as I didn't know anything about Society I never thought about it. Why couldn't your family have let me stay where I was? I should have been head clerk with a good salary by this time, and we would have arranged our expenses accordingly when your mother died. Why can't men give a young fellow a better chance when he goes into business for himself? Every man trying to cut every other man's throat. What chance has a young fellow with a small capital?" "Do you know that you have blamed everybody but yourself? However ... perhaps you are right.... Mr. Kirkpatrick puts it down to the system. I feel more inclined to trace it straight back to old Dame Nature--all the ancestral inheritances down in our sub-cellars. We are as we are made and our characters are certainly our fate. I suppose you will at least resign from the club?" He set his lips in the hard line that made him look the man of character his ancestor, John Dwight, had been when he legislated in the first Congress. "No, I shall not resign. It would be bad business in two ways: they would know I was hard up, and I should no longer meet in the same way the men who can give me a leg up in business." "Are you sure those are the only reasons?" To this he did not deign to reply, and she asked: "Do you mean that you shall go on speculating?" "I've nothing to speculate with. I mean that the men I cultivate can help me in business."