He reflected, with shame, that it was also cheaper to punish than forgive him.
He returned to his hotel prepared for any desperate measure, and convinced now that the Grosvenor Green apartment was not merely the only thing left for him, but was, on its own merits, the best thing in New York.
Fulkerson was waiting for him in the reading-room, and it gave March the curious thrill with which a man closes with temptation when he said: "Look here! Why don't you take that woman's flat in the Xenophon?
She's been at the agents again, and they've been at me.

She likes your look--or Mrs.March's--and I guess you can have it at a pretty heavy discount from the original price.

I'm authorized to say you can have it for one seventy-five a month, and I don't believe it would be safe for you to offer one fifty." March shook his head, and dropped a mask of virtuous rejection over his corrupt acquiescence.

"It's too small for us--we couldn't squeeze into it." "Why, look here!" Fulkerson persisted.

"How many rooms do you people want ?" "I've got to have a place to work--" "Of course! And you've got to have it at the Fifth Wheel office." "I hadn't thought of that," March began.