I've never thought about it."
"So dishonest as--as to get into trouble and be sent to prison and so
on?"
"Oh, I should hope to be skilful enough to avoid that," he laughed.
"Fools ought never to be dishonest; so they invented the 'best policy'
proverb to keep themselves straight."
May nodded. "That's it, I think," she said, and fell into silence again.
This time he spoke.
"I don't like your wanting money," he said in a low voice.
"No, I know," she smiled. "It's not like what you've always chosen to
think I'm like. I ought to live in gilded halls and scatter largesse,
oughtn't I?" She laughed a little bitterly. "Perhaps I will, if cousin
Mandeville does his duty."
"Meanwhile you feel the temptation to dishonesty?" He paused, but then
went on deliberately, "Or, to follow your rule of complete
identification, shall I say 'we feel a temptation to dishonesty, do we?'"
"Oh, but we should be clever enough not to be found out, shouldn't we?"
"I think you would."
"You've not half such good reason to think it as I have." She rose,
walked to the hearth-rug, and stood facing the grate, her back turned to
him.
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