reminding her how once upon a time she had regarded an evening alone
with him as an entertainment superior to all others. He called her
ridiculous names, talked to her in baby language; while a dozen
times a day it became necessary for her to take down her back hair
and do it up afresh. At the end of a month, as I have said, it was
she who suggested a slight cessation of affection."

"Had I been in her place," said the Girton Girl, "it would have been
a separation I should have suggested. I should have hated him for
the rest of my life."

"For merely trying to agree with you?" I said.

"For showing me I was a fool for ever having wanted his affection,"
replied the Girton Girl.

"You can generally," said the Philosopher, "make people ridiculous
by taking them at their word."

"Especially women," murmured the Minor Poet.

"I wonder," said the Philosopher, "is there really so much
difference between men and women as we think? What there is, may it
not be the result of Civilisation rather than of Nature, of training
rather than of instinct?"

"Deny the contest between male and female, and you deprive life of
half its poetry," urged the Minor Poet.

"Poetry," returned the Philosopher, "was made for man, not man for