Business never goes to sleep
It was of no consequence that the details and the technicalities escaped her: she knew their meaningless syllables stood for success, and what that meant was as clear as day to her. Every Wall Street term had its equivalent in the language of Fifth Avenue, and while he talked of building up railways she was building up palaces, and picturing all the multiple lives he would lead in them. To have things had always seemed to her the first essential of existence, and as she listened to him the vision of the things he could have unrolled itself before her like the long triumph of an Asiatic conqueror.
"And what are you going to do next?" she asked, almost breathlessly, when he had ended.
"Oh, there’s always a lot to do next. Business never goes to sleep."
"Yes; but I mean besides business."
"Why–everything I can, I guess." He leaned back in his chair with an air of placid power, as if he were so sure of getting what he wanted that there was no longer any use in hurrying, huge as his vistas had become.
She continued to question him, and he began to talk of his growing passion for pictures and furniture, and of his desire to form a collection which should be a great representative assemblage of unmatched specimens. As he spoke she saw his expression change, and his eyes grow younger, almost boyish, with a concentrated look in them that reminded her of long-forgotten things.
"I mean to have the best, you know; not just to get ahead of the other fellows, but because I know it when I see it. I guess that’s the only good reason," he concluded; and he added, looking at her with a smile: "It was what you were always after, wasn’t it?"
Chapter 42
Undine had gained her point, and the entresol of the Hotel de Chelles reopened its doors for the season.
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