"Just the same, I think you are horridly critical of women."
"Then you should advise me to cultivate my illusions in their direction."
"I should if I thought it were necessary. As I have a very high opinion of women, I don't think any illusions concerning them are necessary."
"Loftily said. And I sha'n't allow you to think my own opinion any less high. When I was a boy, women were all angels to me; they are not quite that, we know."
"In spite of illusions."
"But I don't want to put them very much lower than the angels--and I don't. I keep them up because I like to."
Her comment was still keen. "Not because they deserve it."
"I won't quarrel with you--because, then, they do deserve it. It is pleasant to be set right."
The shower had passed and the party was making ready to start. Alice rose. "You haven't said what you think of your own kind, as you call them--menkind."
Kimberly held her coat for her to slip into. "Of course, I try not to think of them."