A.M. Oh nonsense!—you always imagine women think of nothing but men.
I. I didn’t say so!
A.M. But you imply it.
I. I. I don’t even imply it.
A.M. You do!
I. On the contrary, I feel quite certain that Miss A. is quite unconscious of the true nature of the command that sent her to the School of Political Economy.
At this stage in the dialogue the average man usually shrugs his shoulders, because he knows nothing of unconscious motives; he knows nothing of the brain’s misinterpretation of the body’s messages to it, and the consequence is that he believes honestly in the avowed motive in people’s conduct always being the real and true one.
But if this were so, women, with their moral upbringing as it is at present, would be ashamed of doing half they constantly and habitually do. It is their salvation in the present Puritanical age that their deepest motives for their actions are not apparent to themselves, otherwise the more tasteful, the more sensitive among them, would fly to the nearest cellar for concealment and never show their faces again.
Never accept a Woman’s explanation of the motives actuating her—not because she is deliberately lying, but because she does not know them: The motive to her is always the one that is apparent, the one that is the outcome of her mind’s misinterpretation of the body’s messages to it.
People who say that women deliberately lie in these circumstances simply do not know the subject, and had better start studying it afresh.