“Don’t laugh at me.”
“I assure you I won’t. I was looking at you from the other side of the room and thinking that it was strange that I didn’t want to laugh. Most girls do affect me that way. Do you mind if I ask you something? Are you an ardent anything?”
Cecily looked bewildered.
“I mean feminist, sociologist, politician—have you a heavy purpose?”
“Dick,” said Cecily definitely.
“There you are. I knew it. I hadn’t seen a girl look at a man in years as you looked at Dick. Men aren’t the heavy interests of women any more.”
“Nonsense. It seems to me girls aren’t interested in anything else.”
“You don’t understand me. I used the wrong word anyhow. Girls are interested enough in men, but not singly in a man. That’s what I mean. You don’t see that ’till death do us part’ look around on girls’ faces.”
“Are you just being silly?”
“Probably,” Matthew grinned, “but I expressed myself anyway. It did me good. I feel that I have made a real contribution to thought.”