“Many, many times and to countless girls! But I meant it each time I said it.”
At any rate he didn’t protest he had never said such a thing before.
“Shall we sit over there and talk? I’d like to,” he asked, simply.
They sat down and watched the crowd. Over near the pavilion sat a little cluster of middle-aged women, heads close together but not so close that they missed anything going on around them.
“The anvil chorus commences,” Carl commented, nodding his head at the group. “The old tabbies will now proceed to dissect every soul around here.”
“Oh, they mean no real harm. Why bother about them? That’s about all they care about,” Mimi easily remarked.
“Why? The hit dog yelps. They’ve begun again on me right where they left off when I went away to school nearly six years ago. I am discovering that I’m an extremely worthless fellow—I smoke cigarettes, I don’t see much use in going to church and listening to a lot of platitudes about religion mixed with bum philosophy and worse science—the direct opposite of most of the things I learned in school. I haven’t sense enough to listen to it and keep my mouth shut—I go around mouthing my own disagreement with a lot of ignorant preachers!”
“Why go to the trouble of expressing your own opinions? Why not ignore the things that annoy you by their falseness? It would be much easier—”
“Ignore them? Lord, I’ve tried a thousand times and just when I think I’ve tied my tongue, out pops an objection and I’m in hot water again. My dad’s disgusted with me—he says I’m a conceited, useless young fool and I’m more than halfway inclined to believe he’s right. He’s