He took it out now by an ample
movement of his arm and blew a thin cloud.
"You smile? It would have been more kind to spare my blushes. But as a
matter of fact I need not blush. This is not vanity; it is analysis.
We'll let sagacity stand. But we must also note what sagacity in this
connection stands for. When you see this you shall see also that there
was nothing in it to alarm my modesty. I don't think Mrs. Fyne credited
me with the possession of wisdom tempered by common sense. And had I had
the wisdom of the Seven Sages of Antiquity, she would not have been moved
to confidence or admiration. The secret scorn of women for the capacity
to consider judiciously and to express profoundly a meditated conclusion
is unbounded. They have no use for these lofty exercises which they look
upon as a sort of purely masculine game--game meaning a respectable
occupation devised to kill time in this man-arranged life which must be
got through somehow. What women's acuteness really respects are the
inept "ideas" and the sheeplike impulses by which our actions and
opinions are determined in matters of real importance.
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