hate it!” was his answer. “All I’ve heard since I’ve been back is a lot of men telling dirty stories and confessing the loss of their sexual powers by boasting of their amorous adventures. If it isn’t that, it’s these old women spitting out lies about every woman who isn’t present. I’ve gotten to the place I wince every time I hear something nice about a person—I know it’s liable to be only the preface to a whopping big story tearing that same person to pieces.”
“You’re exaggerating—you’re letting a handful give you an obsession that puts the same stamp on all of them,” she protested. “There are lots of women and men who’d fit into neither of the classes you’ve given.”
“I know it—there are lots of folks like Mrs. Adams, for example, and Hilda, but the trouble is they’re the kind who attend to their own affairs. It’s this other kind that sets the example and they’re the ones who do the talking you’ve got to listen to. … Say, I guess we’d better not sit here too long or they’ll begin talking about you.”