"Why—I don't know. I'm sorry for him, rather."
"He doesn't look an object to inspire pity, Miss Salome. He seems to be a brilliant sort of person."
"Yes, I know, but he's so sort of unprotected, like a little boy."
"So that's why you're sorry for him? That's akin to saying that you're sorry for all men."
"I am, rather, and all women."
He looked at her keenly, and she gave him her eyes directly.
"You don't look a misogynist."
"I am tremendously interested in life, but I feel always a little sorry for all of us who are trying to live it. Don't you?"
"Yes, but I'm old enough to be sorry for us, and you are not."
"I'm rather old," she said; then, as he laughed, she joined him. She was nearer happy than she had ever been. She was having a real conversation with a man she liked.