Barth closed the circle of her argument.
“No. Because I can’t seem to understand her.”
“Are you sure she understands herself?”
“Oh, yes. Miss Howard is very clever, you know.”
“Perhaps. It doesn’t always follow. And are you sure she cares to have you understand her?”
The young Englishman winced at the question.
“What should she have against me?” he asked directly.
“I am not saying that she has anything,” the Lady answered, in swift evasion. “Sometimes it is to their best friends that girls show their most contradictory sides.”
“Oh. You mean it is one of her American ways?”
“Yes, if you choose to call it that.”