Quantitative assessment

Quentin sighed and put down his pencil on the table with an irritated gesture.
- How many times have I told you that I don't need to be disturbed? I'm working on an cost valuation of the social costs of dying from cancer and I can't do that if you keep bothering me all the time.
- I just wanted you to feel this lump in my breast, his wife said meekly.
Without looking at her, Quentin got up from his chair, his manuscripts in a heavy pile in his arms, brushed past her, stormed down the stairs to the windowless room in the basement where years of disagreements had taught his wife never to trespass, and continued writing in longhand the sentence he had been struggling with when he was interrupted.

"Since primary income is lower for women than for men, initiatives supporting men's health should be preferred over initiatives supporting women's health, all other things being equal. Ethically, this may be considered as problematic..."

He paused and listened to the annoying sound of his wife pacing the living room floor upstairs, like she always did when she was upset or angry. Then he deleted the last sentence.