Trent.
"Too deep for speech," said Lady Manby. "I love to see fathers and sons
together, the fathers trying to look younger than they are and the sons
older. It's the most comic relationship, and breeds shyness as the West
African climate breeds fever."
"I know the whole of the West African coast by heart," declared Miss
Burns, wagging her head, and moving her brown hands nervously among her
knives and forks. "And I never caught anything there."
"Not even a husband," murmured Mrs. Wolfstein to Lady Manby.
"In fact, I never felt better in my life than I did at Old Calabar,"
continued Miss Burns. "But there my mind was occupied. I was studying the
habits of alligators."
"They're very bad, aren't they?" asked Lady Manby, in a tone of earnest
inquiry.
"I prefer to study the habits of men," said Sally Perceval, who was
always surrounded by a troup of young racing men and athletes, who
admired her swimming feats.
"Men are very disappointing, I think," observed Mrs. Trent. "They are
like a lot of beads all threaded on one string."
"And what's the string?" asked Sally Perceval.
"Vanity. Men are far vainer than we are. Their indifference to the little
arts we practise shows it. A woman whose head is bald covers it with a
wig. Without a wig she would feel that she was an outcast totally
powerless to attract. But a bald-headed man has no idea of diffidence. He
does not bother about a wig because he expects to be adored without one.
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