“If it comes to that,” she went on, “your remark seemed to me, or rather it seems to me now that I have had time to get it into perspective, like one of those unpleasant pleasant things that are the most irritating of all.”
“Do you object to my thinking that women like one another better than they used to?”
“No. I only object to your taunting us with it.”
“Will you please—”
“No, I will not explain. It should be obvious that we do not like Man to look down from his parapet and praise us for a purely human trait.”
“Heavens!” I exclaimed, “did I really look down from a parapet? I never should have suspected it. It never would have occurred to me that you would take offence at my simple gratification. Don’t you like to like one another?”
“Stop bantering,” she said in a different tone, with her cup raised, “and tell me whether you really think women are getting to like one another.”
“Think it? Is it not one of those things which we may know by observation?”
“I’m afraid you are deceived. You have inferred too much from the existence of women’s clubs. Women have a great many more opportunities to dislike each other than they used to have. Everything has become complicated. A man should understand. Nowadays there are a great many ways in which women can be disagreeable.”
“There certainly are a great many ways in which they can be agreeable.”