"
"They are generally doing that on their own account.
"They are generally doing that on their own account.
Kipling - Poems
I should have laughed in his face.
Men seldom confide
in me. How is it they come to you? "
"For the sake of impressing me with their careers in the past. Protect
me from men with confidences! "
"And yet you encourage them? "
"What can I do? They talk. I listen, and they vow that I am sympathetic.
I know I always profess astonishment even when the plot is--of the most
old possible. "
"Yes. Men are so unblushingly explicit if they are once allowed to talk,
whereas women's confidences are full of reservations and fibs, except"--
"When they go mad and babble of the Unutterabilities after a week's
acquaintance. Really, if you come to consider, we know a great deal more
of men than of our own sex. "
"And the extraordinary thing is that men will never believe it. They say
we are trying to hide something.
"
"They are generally doing that on their own account. Alas! These
chocolates pall upon me, and I haven't eaten more than a dozen. I think
I shall go to sleep. "
"Then you'll get fat dear. If you took more exercise and a more
intelligent interest in your neighbors you would--"
"Be as much loved as Mrs. Hauksbee. You're a darling in many ways and I
like you--you are not a woman's woman--but why do you trouble yourself
about mere human beings? "
"Because in the absence of angels, who I am sure would be horribly dull,
men and women are the most fascinating things in the whole wide world,
lazy one. I am interested in The Dowd--I am interested in The Dancing
Master--I am interested in the Hawley Boy--and I am interested in you. "
"Why couple me with the Hawley Boy? He is your property. "
"Yes, and in his own guileless speech, I'm making a good thing out
of him. When he is slightly more reformed, and has passed his Higher
Standard, or whatever the authorities think fit to exact from him, I
shall select a pretty little girl, the Holt girl, I think, and"--here
she waved her hands airily--"'whom Mrs. Hauksbee hath joined together
let no man put asunder. ' That's all.
in me. How is it they come to you? "
"For the sake of impressing me with their careers in the past. Protect
me from men with confidences! "
"And yet you encourage them? "
"What can I do? They talk. I listen, and they vow that I am sympathetic.
I know I always profess astonishment even when the plot is--of the most
old possible. "
"Yes. Men are so unblushingly explicit if they are once allowed to talk,
whereas women's confidences are full of reservations and fibs, except"--
"When they go mad and babble of the Unutterabilities after a week's
acquaintance. Really, if you come to consider, we know a great deal more
of men than of our own sex. "
"And the extraordinary thing is that men will never believe it. They say
we are trying to hide something.
"
"They are generally doing that on their own account. Alas! These
chocolates pall upon me, and I haven't eaten more than a dozen. I think
I shall go to sleep. "
"Then you'll get fat dear. If you took more exercise and a more
intelligent interest in your neighbors you would--"
"Be as much loved as Mrs. Hauksbee. You're a darling in many ways and I
like you--you are not a woman's woman--but why do you trouble yourself
about mere human beings? "
"Because in the absence of angels, who I am sure would be horribly dull,
men and women are the most fascinating things in the whole wide world,
lazy one. I am interested in The Dowd--I am interested in The Dancing
Master--I am interested in the Hawley Boy--and I am interested in you. "
"Why couple me with the Hawley Boy? He is your property. "
"Yes, and in his own guileless speech, I'm making a good thing out
of him. When he is slightly more reformed, and has passed his Higher
Standard, or whatever the authorities think fit to exact from him, I
shall select a pretty little girl, the Holt girl, I think, and"--here
she waved her hands airily--"'whom Mrs. Hauksbee hath joined together
let no man put asunder. ' That's all.
