"Not half so much as women flatter men," cried the actress. "We are more ingenious, more refined and ready, than you are. Besides, we imply, where you express; and flattery, by implication, is the most subtle and penetrating of all. And, lastly, there is more of the heart in what we utter; we do feel a little of what we say."
"And you mean to imply," exclaimed her companion, "that we do not!"
"Yes," answered she. "I lay it down as a rule, the truth of which all experience confirms, that every man behaves as ill as he possibly can to every woman, under every possible circumstance!"
"A sweeping censure!" cried Walter.
"And, like all sweeping censures," said she, "if not true of, perhaps, one or two wonderful exceptions, it applies strictly to the generality. What man has the slightest scruple as to gaining the confidence; making himself not only necessary to her happiness, but that very happiness itself; and then sacrificing her to vanity, caprice, or any slight
