"
"I don't believe," said Mrs. Tristram, "that you are never angry. A man
ought to be angry sometimes, and you are neither good enough nor bad
enough always to keep your temper."
"I lose it perhaps once in five years."
"The time is coming round, then," said his hostess. "Before I have known
you six months I shall see you in a fine fury."
"Do you mean to put me into one?"
"I should not be sorry. You take things too coolly. It exasperates me.
And then you are too happy. You have what must be the most agreeable
thing in the world, the consciousness of having bought your pleasure
beforehand and paid for it. You have not a day of reckoning staring you
in the face. Your reckonings are over."
"Well, I suppose I am happy," said Newman, meditatively.
"You have been odiously successful."
"Successful in copper," said Newman, "only so-so in railroads, and a
hopeless fizzle in oil."
"It is very disagreeable to know how Americans have made their money.
Now you have the world before you. You have only to enjoy."
"Oh, I suppose I am very well off," said Newman. "Only I am tired of
having it thrown up at me. Besides, there are several drawbacks. I am
not intellectual."
"One doesn't expect it of you," Mrs. Tristram answered. Then in a
moment, "Besides, you are!"
"Well, I mean to have a good time, whether or no," said Newman.
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