"There is something else, Natalie."
She had relaxed like a kitten in her big chair, and was lighting one of
the small, gilt-tipped cigarets she affected.
"About Graham?"
"It affects Graham. It affects us all."
"Yes?"
He hesitated. To talk to Natalie about business meant reducing it to its
most elemental form.
"Have you ever thought that this war of ours means more than merely
raising armies?"
"I haven't thought about this war at all. It's too absurd. A lot of
politicians?" She shrugged her shoulders.
"It means a great deal of money."
"'Well, the country is rich, isn't it?"
"The country? That means the people."
"I knew we'd get to money sooner or later," she observed, resignedly.
"All right. We'll be taxed, so we'll cut down on the country house--go
on. I can say it before you do. But don't say we'll have to do without
the greenhouses, because we can't."
"We may have to go without more than greenhouses."
His tone made her sit bolt upright. Then she laughed a little.
"Poor old Clay," she said, with the caressing tone she used when she
meant to make no concession. "I do spend money, don't I? But I do make
you comfortable, you know. And what is what I spend, compared with what
you are making?"
"It's just that. I don't think I can consistently go on making a profit
on this war, now that we are in it."
He explained then what he meant, and watched her face set into the
hard lines he knew so well. But she listened to the end and when he had
finished she said nothing.
"Well?" he said.
"I don't think you have the remotest idea of doing it. You like to play
at the heroic. You can see yourself doing it, and every one pointing
to you as the man who threw away a fortune. But you are humbugging
yourself. You'll never do it. I give you credit for too much sense."
He went rather white. She knew the weakness in his armor, his hatred of
anything theatrical, and with unfailing accuracy she always pierced it.
"Suppose I tell you I have already offered the plant to the government,
at a nominal profit."
Suddenly she got up, and every vestige of softness was gone.
"I don't think you would be such a fool."
"I have done it."
"Then you are insane. There is no other possible explanation."