“Sometimes. I fancy Dick gets most of his stories from Bob?”
“Aren’t they proper?”
“Sometimes. Oh, Bob is a very handsome fellow. He was in the navy at one time. He was an Ensign—what they call an Insect in the navy. Then his father died and left him a lot of money. Now he is occupied with the problem as to which girl he will let have him.”
“I suppose they all want him?”
“Naturally. Whoever gets him will have a dreadful time. He is very handsome.”
“I have known cases—” I began.
“Yes, but the chances will all be against her. A really handsome man like Bob simply invites disaster. It is not at all the same with a handsome woman. The whole mechanism of society is constructed with a view to watching the handsome woman,—relatives, neighbors, other women in general all watch her. But there is no one to watch the handsome man but his wife.”
“I can see,” I said, “how that might be too much for one woman. And yet I can see chances for assistance from other women.”
“Not from disappointed ones. The disappointed ones hate the handsome man’s wife worse than the others do. No, she is bound to fight the thing out for herself.”