"By no means! but I think they rarely waste so much in any one direction as to leave them quite impoverished."
"Mr. Carleton, how do you bear that, sir?" said Mrs. Evelyn. "Will you let such an assertion pass unchecked?"
"I would not if I could help it, Mrs. Evelyn."
"That isn't saying much for yourself," said Constance;--"but Fleda my dear, where did you get such an experience of waste and desolation?"
"Oh, 'man is a microcosm,' you know," said Fleda lightly.
"But you make it out that only one-half of mankind can appropriate that axiom," said Mr. Stackpole. "How can a woman know men's hearts so well?"
"On the principle that the whole is greater than a part?" said Mr. Carleton smiling.
"I'll sleep upon that before I give my opinion," said Mr. Stackpole. "Mrs. Evelyn, good-evening!--"
"Well Mr. Carleton!" said Constance, "you have said a great deal for women's minds."
"Some women's minds," he said with a smile.