present. Anyhow, the way to get there right is to be sent there
from the people--by the people. You are the wife of a public man,
but you've had no training."

"I--" she began.

"Hear me first," he said, between entreaty and command. "You think
I'm the one that's got it all to learn. Think again. The little
tiddledywinks business that I've got to learn--all the value there
is in the mass of balderdash about manners and dress--I can learn
it in a few lessons. You can teach it to me in no time. But what
you've got to learn--how to be a wife, how to live on a modest
income, how to take care of me, and help me in my career, how to
be a woman instead of, largely, a dressmaker's or a dancing-
master's expression for lady-likeness--to learn all that is going
to take time. And we must begin at once; for, as I told you, the
house is afire."

She opened her lips to speak.

"No--not yet," said he. "One thing more. You've been thinking
things about me. Well, do you imagine this busy brain of mine
hasn't been thinking a few things about you? Why, Margaret, you
need me even more than I need you, though I need you more than I'd
dare try to tell you. You need just such a man as me to give you
direction and purpose--REAL backbone. Primping and preening in
carriages and parlors--THAT isn't life. It's the frosting on the
cake. Now, you and I, we're going to have the cake itself. Maybe
with, maybe without the frosting. BUT NOT THE FROSTING WITHOUT THE
CAKE, MARGARET!"