His companion bent her eyes upon her fan for a moment as she opened and closed it.
“They are capable of resigning themselves to it—for a purpose.”
Bernard was moved to extreme merriment.
“For what purpose?”
“I don’t know that I mean for a purpose,” said Miss Vivian; “but for a necessity.”
“Ah, what an odious necessity!”
“Necessities usually are odious. But women meet them. Men evade them and shirk them.”
“I contest your proposition. Women are themselves necessities; but they are not odious ones!” And Bernard added, in a moment, “One could n’t evade them, if they were!”
“I object to being called a necessity,” said Angela Vivian. “It diminishes one’s merit.”
“Ah, but it enhances the charm of life!”