A woman will tell a man friend what she will not tell a lover.
Few lovers will understand this, fewer still will believe it. Yet it is true, and the explication of its truth would be long and complex. This much may be said:
Love idealizes; friendship does not. At the same time,
Love probes the innermost recesses of the womanly nature; and, until the woman is wholly won,
The woman resents the inspection of love. She knows that,
To stimulate love, the woman must conceal, not reveal;
To stimulate love, the woman must conceal, not reveal. Furthermore,
Never was there a man who could be at once friend and lover.
Which is only one more proof that
Never will the sexes understand each other.