for individual happiness the sympathetic temperament is the first
necessity."

There was a silence, Penelope feeling that Lord St. John had crystallised
in words, thoughts and theories that she sensed as being the foundation
of her own opinions, hitherto unrecognised and nebulous.

Presently he spoke again.

"And I don't really think men are at all suited to have the care and
guardianship of women."

"Unfortunately they're all that Providence has seen fit to provide,"
replied Penelope, with her usual bluntly philosophical acceptance of
facts.

"And yet--we men don't understand women. We're constantly hurting them
with our clumsy misconceptions--with our failure to respond to their
complexities."

Penelope's eyes grew kind.

"I don't think you would," she said.

"Ah, my dear, I'm an old man now and perhaps I understand. But there was
a time when I understood no better than the average youngster who gaily
asks some nice woman to trust her future in his hands--without a second
thought as to whether he's fit for such a trust. And that was just the
time when a little understanding would have given happiness to the woman
I loved best on earth."