“You’re a very solid citizen, aren’t you?” asked Margaret.
“I like solid citizens,” he answered, “are they too on your list of obnoxious people and things?”
“Of course they are not.”
“I was a little worried after that list began developing. I don’t want to be on the list of people you don’t like.”
But it was not until they had finished dinner and were drinking coffee that he developed that thought.
“I wonder if you know how hard you women are making things for men,” he said, not abruptly but as if stating his brief.
“Perhaps it was too easy before.”
“Perhaps. But you make it so difficult—you stand so aggressively strong—so independent of us that we can’t find a thing with which to recommend ourselves. You don’t want our protection—our support—you mistrust our motives.”
“I told you this afternoon that I thought most women did cling to protection and support.”
“Not the women we may want. You don’t want the things I have to offer.”