"Bless your soul, no," Lawanne laughed. "If I were a little more
romantic, I might run away with her myself. What a tremendous jar that
would give Bland's exasperating complacency. I believe he's a
hang-over from that prehistoric time when men didn't believe that any
woman had a soul--that a woman was something in which a man acquired a
definite property right merely by marrying her."
Doris chuckled.
"I can imagine how Mr. Bland would look if he heard you," she said.
"He'd only smile in a superior manner," Lawanne declared. "You
couldn't get Bland fussed up by any mere assertion. The only thing
that would stir him deeply would be a direct assault on that vague
abstraction which he calls his honor--or on his property. Then he
would very likely smite the wrongdoer with all the efficiency of
outraged virtue."
Hollister continued to muse on this after Lawanne went away. He
thought Lawanne's summing up a trifle severe. Nevertheless it was a
pretty clear statement of fact. Bland certainly seemed above working
either for money or to secure a reasonable degree of comfort for
himself and his wife.
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