Tessa had a way of falling in love with girls; that night she fell in love with Nan Gerard; sitting on the carpet close to the register in a white skirt and crimson breakfast sacque, bending forward with her arms clasping her knees, she told Tessa the story of her life.
Tessa was seated on the bed, still in the black silk she had worn, with a white shawl of Shetland wool thrown around her; she had taken the hair-pins out of the hair and the long braid was brought forward and laid across her bosom reaching far below her waist.
She braided and unbraided the ends of it as Nan talked about last winter and Dr. Towne.
“I like to talk to you; I can trust you, I wouldn’t be afraid to tell you any thing; I can not trust Mary, she exaggerates fearfully. I don’t mind telling you that I came near falling in love with that handsome black bear; it was only skin deep however; I think that I have lost my attraction for him, whatever it was; I never do take falling in love hard; why, some girls take it as a matter of life and death; I think the reason must be that I can never love any one as I loved Robert. He was a saint. Yes, he was; you needn’t look incredulous! I am not sentimental, I am practical and I intend to marry some day. People call me a flirt, perhaps I am, but my fun is very innocent and most delightful.
“I know this: Ralph Towne would not like me if I were the only girl in existence; he wants some one who can think as well as talk; you wouldn’t guess it to hear him talk, would you?
“Did you ever see a man who could not talk some kind of nonsense? There’s Gus Hammerton, can’t he talk splendid nonsense? Some of his nonsense is too deep for me.
“Now, I’ve been trying an experiment with Dr. Towne, he is such an old bear that I thought it would do no harm; I made up my mind to see if it were possible for a marriageable woman to treat a marriageable man as if he were another woman! I don’t know about it though,” she added ruefully.
“Has it failed?”
“I think it has—rather. He does not understand—”
“No man would understand.”