"I tell you," said Lapham, "it was a perfectly square thing.
And I wish, once for all, you would quit bothering about it.
My conscience is easy as far as he is concerned, and it
always was."

"And I can't look at him without feeling as if you'd
ruined him, Silas."

"Don't look at him, then," said her husband, with a scowl.
"I want you should recollect in the first place, Persis,
that I never wanted a partner."

"If he hadn't put his money in when he did, you'd 'a'
broken down."

"Well, he got his money out again, and more, too,"
said the Colonel, with a sulky weariness.

"He didn't want to take it out."

"I gave him his choice: buy out or go out."

"You know he couldn't buy out then. It was no choice
at all."

"It was a business chance."

"No; you had better face the truth, Silas. It was no chance
at all. You crowded him out. A man that had saved you! No,
you had got greedy, Silas. You had made your paint your god,