And it was all that Ethel could do to dissuade him.
"His idea of being nice to a woman," she told herself impatiently, "is to give her expensive things, and above all keep her idle." She did not add, "Amy taught him that." But it was in the back of her mind.
He often talked of his business, he tried to explain to her the details of speculative building, real estate values and the like.

And listening and watching his face, she felt his force and vitality, his doggedness, the fight in him.

She recalled Amy's eager faith in Joe as a man who was "simply bound to make money." And at times she said to herself, "What a pity." Still, it was all rather puzzling.

For his talk of the growth of the city, his view of its mighty pulsing life, restless, heaving, leaping on, gripped her more than ever before.

And moreover, now that Amy was dead, Ethel soon began to feel another Joe emerging out of some period long ago.