MRS. TILSBURY. (Indifferently.) Oh, very likely, it is true. Men are like the moon, they never show but one side of their surface to the world of women. I am going to put a moon up in this corner. Would you make it full or three-quarters?
MRS. BROWN. They show enough of their other side after they are married.
MRS. TILSBURY. Don’t marry them then. I think I will make this a new moon. It is more suggestive of a bright future, and circles are so difficult to draw.
MRS. BROWN. Josephine, you are positively unkind. Here I have done everything to protect Mildred from Mr. Becker and Mr. Van Tousel and now that I have succeeded so well that she is too piqued to receive either of them, you won’t help me by giving me some definite information about them. You don’t care for anything but that old drawing.
MRS. TILSBURY. I must present this to the committee to be passed upon by Tuesday. You are unreasonable, Imogene. How can I find out about Mr. Becker’s moral character?
MRS. BROWN. You could ask your husband.
MRS. TILSBURY. You know what men are. They never give each other away to women.
MRS. BROWN. Yes, they always form a close corporation to keep each other in and women form a close corporation to keep each other out.
MRS. TILSBURY. I suppose that that is an elemental instinct. Primæval men as hunters were obliged to combine to overcome the strength of their prey, and women as the hunted used to separate to disperse their trails.