“They chatter so,” she assented. “I can’t either.”

“But I find that the companionship of one intelligent, sympathetic woman is as much of a stimulus as a lot of men. It’s funny, isn’t it, that I should be like that?”

“Yes,” she said, “it is funny⁠—strange. But I believe in companionship. I believe that between man and woman that is the great thing⁠—companionship. Love,” she added, abruptly, and then broke off with a deep sigh. “Oh, I don’t know,” she murmured. “Do you remember those lines:

‘Man’s love is of his life a thing apart,

’Tis woman’s whole existence.

‘Man’s love is of his life a thing apart, ’Tis woman’s whole existence.