"You need not say it just with those words," said Lois. "And perhaps, if anybody told them the truth, they would do better. At any rate, what they think is not the question, Mr. Dillwyn."
"What is the question?" he asked, smiling.
"What the Lord will think."
"Miss Lois, do you never use dissimulation?"
Lois could not help colouring, a little distressed.
"I try not," she answered. "I dare say I do, sometimes. I dare not say
I do not. It is very difficult for a woman to help it."
"More difficult for a woman than for a man?"
"I do not know. I suppose it is."
"Why should that be?"
"I do not know—unless because she is the weaker, and it may be part of the defensive armour of a weak animal."