Lois met his eyes in a little wonderment at this questioning, and answered a plain "yes."
"But, to be _happy_, with me, means, to be independent of circumstances. I do not call him _happy_, whose happiness is gone if the east wind blow, or a party miscarry, or a bank break; even though it were the bank in which his property is involved."
"And--pray forgive me for asking!--but, are you happy in this exclusive sense?"
"I have no property in a bank," said Lois, smiling again; "I have not been tried that way; but I suppose it may do as well to have no property anywhere. Yes, Mr. Dillwyn."
"But that is equal to having the philosopher's stone!" cried Dillwyn.
"The wise men of old time made themselves very busy in the search for some substance, or composition, which would turn other substances to gold. Looking upon gold as the source and sum of all felicity, they spent endless pains and countless time upon the search for this transmuting substance. They thought, if they could get gold enough, they would be happy. Sometimes some one of them fancied he was just upon the point of making the immortal discovery; but there he always broke down."
"They were looking in the wrong place," said Lois thoughtfully.
Lois smiled. It was a smile that struck Philip very much, for its calm and confident sweetness; yes, more than that; for its gladness. She was not in haste to answer; apparently she felt some difficulty.
"I do not think gold ever made anybody happy," she said at length.
"That is what moralists tell us. But, after all, Miss Lothrop, money is the means to everything else in this world."
"Well, what is, then? They say--and perhaps you will say--that friendships and affections can do more; but I assure you, where there are not the means to stave off grinding toil or crushing poverty, affections wither; or if they do not quite wither, they bear no golden fruit of happiness. On the contrary, they offer vulnerable spots to the stings of pain."
Lois lifted up her eyes and looked at her questioner inquiringly. Did he know no better than that?
"With money, one can do everything," he went on, though struck by her expression.
"Yes," said Lois; "and yet--all that never satisfied anybody."
"Satisfied!" cried Philip. "Satisfied is a very large word. Who is satisfied?"