I imagine you're capable of carrying your point,
regardless of what I feel."
"But I've no point to carry. I find Mr. Guion wanting to borrow a sum of
money that I'm prepared to lend. It's a common situation in business."
"Ah, but this is not business. It's charity."
"Did Mr. Guion tell you so?"
"He did. He told me all about it. My father has no secrets from me."
"Did he use the word--charity?"
"Almost. He said you offered him a loan, but that it really was a gift."
His first impulse was to repudiate this point of view, but a minute's
reflection decided him in favor of plain speaking. "Well," he said,
slowly, "suppose it _was_ a gift. Would there be any harm in it?"
"There wouldn't be any harm, perhaps; there would only be
an--impossibility." She worked very busily, and spoke in a low voice,
without looking up. "A gift implies two conditions--on the one side the
right to offer, and on the other the freedom to take."
"But I should say that those conditions existed--between Mr. Guion and
me."
"But not between you and me. Don't you see? That's the point. To any
such transaction as this I have to be, in many ways, the most important
party."
Again he was tempted to reject this interpretation; but, once more, on
second thought, he allowed it to go uncontested.
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