"Why is it?"
"Because it leaves out the common sex-factor; the one that is shared alike by the Fidelias and the Joans and all the rest of us."
"And that is——"
"Just plain, every-day inconsistency—our dearest heritage from good old Mother Eve. Being a mere man, you can't understand that, so you neglect to put it into your women."
"But I can't let that stand," he objected. "You must allow the ideal some little latitude. Fidelia was not inconsistent, either in striving with Fleming, or in betraying him."
Miss Grierson's perfect shoulders twitched in a little shrug of impatience.
"Not that time, maybe; with Fleming standing by to tell her that she must be true to herself at whatever cost to him. But the next time—if she should happen to fall in love with the gentleman who was breaking into her father's house-safe...." She laughed in sheer mockery and misquoted a couplet from Riley for him:
"'There, little boy, don't cry;
I have broken your doll, I know!'"
"Break some more of them if you can," he urged. "A few more casualties won't make any difference."
"There is only the boy-doll left; and I don't like to break boy-dolls."