"
"Do you mean seriously to tell me that you consider me a creature of
darkness?"
"I spoke in general," remonstrated d'Alcacer. "Anything else would
have been an impertinence. Yes, obscurity is women's best friend. Their
daring loves it; but a sudden flash of light disconcerts them. Generally
speaking, if they don't get exactly at the truth they always manage to
come pretty near to it."
Mrs. Travers had listened with silent attention and she allowed the
silence to continue for some time after d'Alcacer had ceased. When she
spoke it was to say in an unconcerned tone that as to this subject she
had had special opportunities. Her self-possessed interlocutor
managed to repress a movement of real curiosity under an assumption
of conventional interest. "Indeed," he exclaimed, politely. "A special
opportunity. How did you manage to create it?"
This was too much for Mrs. Travers. "I! Create it!" she exclaimed,
indignantly, but under her breath. "How on earth do you think I could
have done it?"
Mr. d'Alcacer, as if communing with himself, was heard to murmur
unrepentantly that indeed women seldom knew how they had "done it," to
which Mrs. Travers in a weary tone returned the remark that no two
men were dense in the same way. To this Mr. d'Alcacer assented without
difficulty.
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