"
"I suppose you're right," he said a little sadly, "that was always what
you loved."
She turned her head away, but he saw the delicate flush pass from her
cheek to her throat.
"I mean I am faithful to the things that really matter," she answered.
"And the things that do not really matter are men?" he asked with a
humour in which there was a touch of grimness.
"Perhaps you're right about some of them, at least," she answered,
smiling at a memory. "I was full of animal spirits--of the joy of
energy, and there was no other outlet. A girl sows her mental wild oats,
if she has any mind, just as a boy does. But what people never seem
to realize is that women go on and change just as men do. They seem to
think that a girl stands perfectly still, that what she is at twenty,
she remains to the end of her life. Of course that's absurd. After the
first shock of real experience that old make-believe side of things
lost all attraction for me. I could no more go back to flirting with Mr.
Mullen or with Jim Halloween than I could sit down in the road and make
mud pies for an amusement. How is Mr. Mullen, by the way?" she inquired
in a less serious tone.
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