"Perhaps you may, if you will first consent to be sensible," she said,
with returning gravity; "and I reserve the right to turn you away
whenever you begin to talk or act foolish. If you accept these
conditions, you may sit down."
He seated himself upon the soft grass ledge, retaining the hat in his
hands. "You must be an odd sort of a girl," he commented, soberly,
"not to welcome an honest expression of admiration."
"Oh, was that it? Then I duly bow my acknowledgment. I took your
words for one of those silly compliments by which men believe they
honor women."
He glanced curiously aside at her half-averted face. "At first sight I
had supposed you scarcely more than a mere girl, but now you speak like
a woman wearied of the world, utterly condemning all complimentary
phrases."
"Indeed, no; not if they be sincerely expressed as between man and man."
"How is it as between man and woman?"
"Men generally address women as you started to address me, as if there
existed no common ground of serious thought between them. They
condescend, they flatter, they indulge in fulsome compliment, they
whisper soft nonsense which they would be sincerely ashamed to utter in
the presence of their own sex, they act as if they were amusing babies,
rather than conversing with intelligent human beings.
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