justified in refusing to answer. If I told you that you were my first
lover, you would perhaps be manlike enough to think that after all you
had only taken what nobody else had expressed a desire for. A man does
not seem to value anything unless some one else is struggling for it."

"Why, what sage and valuable ideas you have about men, haven't you, my
dear?"

"Well, you can't deny but what there is truth in them."

"I not only can, but I do. On behalf of my fellow men, and on behalf
of myself, I deny it."

"Then, on the other hand," she continued, "if I confessed to you that I
did have half a score or half a dozen of lovers, you would perhaps think
I had been jilting somebody or had been jilted. So you see, taking it
all in, and thinking the matter over, I shall refuse to answer your
question."

"Then you will not confess?"

"Yes, I shall confess. I have been wanting to confess to you for some
little time, and have felt guilty because I did not do so."

"I am prepared to receive the confession," replied the young man,
lazily, "and to grant absolution."

"Well, you talk a great deal about America and about Americans, and
talk as if you were proud of the country, and of its ways, and of its
people."