Mrs. Manhattan nodded. "Well," she said, with an air of profound sapience, "no man ever talks to a woman for two hours unless he keeps saying the same thing all the time."
"Laura, that is not like you. You know perfectly well that friendship can exist between a man and a woman without there being any thought of love-making."
"Oh, I know what you are going to say. But there is the difference between love and friendship. To those who have witnessed a bull-fight, the circus I hear is commonplace."
"You mean to imply that my husband was enjoying a bull-fight?"
"I don't mean anything of the sort. But what a way you have of reducing generalities to particulars! No, I don't mean that at all. I am speaking in the air. What I meant to imply was that love has consolations which friendship does not possess."
"Laura, you don't understand. It is not a question of that. This woman's husband has got into trouble and John was trying to get him out."
Mrs. Manhattan eyed her again in the same gingerly fashion as before. "He said that, did he?"
Eden nodded.
"I hope you pretended to believe him."
"Pretended! Why, I did believe him. I believed him at once."