"
"What is the use of wrapping things up in mystery? But women delight
in it! The more they can mystify and mislead and perplex you, and
leave their real or their possible meaning doubtful and involved,
the greater the pleasure they have. They will carry on a
conversation for hours by hints, suggestions, ambiguous terms,
allusions, phrases that may mean anything or nothing, and then leave
at the end, in obscurity, the whole matter, which could have been
explained and made perfectly clear and settled on a satisfactory
basis in a few short sentences. It's a petty, abominable trait in
their character."
Dick raised his eyebrows considerably.
"She has offended, evidently," he said.
"Offended? She simply tortured me all this evening, either
intentionally or involuntarily. She said too little and too much.
And her manner was worse than her words. I could not make out
whether she was telling me the truth or a series of delicate
excuses; she herself did not calculate on my believing. Everything
she said to-night, if proved false, she might justify to-morrow by
saying, 'Oh, well, of course, I never thought you would take that
seriously; I thought you would understand that was a euphemism to
save your feelings, and so on; you know one does not say to a
person's face one is tired of him and wishes the thing off.' That is
what she may say afterwards, or, of course, what she told me may be
the truth.
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