"Yes, but in theory--"
"Oh, in theory it"s all right. But in practice we men are not wrapped in cotton and tied up with pink ribbons from the day we are born to the day we are married. I--I don"t exactly know how to explain what I mean, but that"s the general idea. Among poor people--I believe one mustn"t say the lower cla.s.ses any more--well, with them it isn"t quite the same. The women don"t get so much care and looking after, when they are young, you know--that sort of thing. The consequence is, that there"s much more equality between men and women. I believe the women are worse, and the men are better--it"s my opinion, at all events. I dare say it isn"t worth much. It"s only what I see at home, you know."
"But the working people don"t flirt!" exclaimed Clare. "They drink, and that sort of thing--"
"Yes, lots of them drink, men and women. And as for flirting--they don"t call it flirting, but in their way I dare say it"s very much the same thing. Only, in our part of the country, a man who flirts, if you call it so, gets just as bad a name as a woman. You see, they have all had about the same bringing up. But with us it"s quite different. A girl is brought up in a cage, like a turtle dove, with nothing to do except to be good, while a boy is sent to a public school when he is eleven or twelve, which is exactly the same as sending him to h.e.l.l, except that he has the certainty of getting away."
"But boys don"t learn to flirt at Eton," observed the young girl.
"Well--no," answered Johnstone. "But they learn everything else, except Latin and Greek, and they go to a private tutor to learn those things before they go to the university."
"You mean that they learn to drink and gamble, and all that?" asked Clare.
"Oh--more or less--a little of everything that does no good--and then you expect us afterwards to be the same as you are, who have been brought up by your mothers at home. It isn"t fair, you know."
"No," answered Clare, yielding. "It isn"t fair. That strikes me as the best argument you have used yet. But it doesn"t make it right, for all that. And why shouldn"t men be brought up to be good, just as women are?"
Brook laughed.
"That"s quite another matter. Only a paternal government could do that--or a maternal government. We haven"t got either, so we have to do the best we can. I only state the fact, and you are obliged to admit it.
I can"t go back to the reason. The fact remains. In certain ways, at a certain age, all men as a rule are bad, and all women, on the whole, are good. Most of you know it, and you judge us accordingly and make allowances. But you yourself don"t seem inclined to be merciful. Perhaps you"ll be less hard-hearted when you are older."
"I"m not hard-hearted!" exclaimed Clare, indignantly. "I"m only just.
And I shall always be the same, I"m sure."
"If I were a Frenchman," said Brook, "I should be polite, and say that I hoped so. As I"m not, and as it would be rude to say that I didn"t believe it, I"ll say nothing. Only to be what you call just, isn"t the way to be liked, you know."
"I don"t want to be liked," Clare answered, rather sharply. "I hate what are called popular people!"
"So do I. They are generally awful bores, don"t you know? They want to keep the thing up and be liked all the time."
"Well--if one likes people at all, one ought to like them all the time,"
objected Clare, with unnecessary contrariety.
"That was the original point," observed Brook. "That was your objection to the man in the book--that he loved first one sister and then the other. Poor chap! The first one loved him, and the second one prayed for him! He had no luck!"
"A man who will do that sort of thing is past praying for!" retorted the young girl. "It seems to me that when a man makes a woman believe that he loves her, the best thing he can do is to be faithful to her afterwards."
"Yes--but supposing that he is quite sure that he can"t make her happy--"
"Then he had no right to make love to her at all."
"But he didn"t know it at first. He didn"t find out until he had known her a long time."
"That makes it all the worse," exclaimed Clare with conviction, but without logic.
"And while he was trying to find out, she fell in love with him,"
continued Brook. "That was unlucky, but it wasn"t his fault, you know--"
"Oh yes, it was--in that book at least. He asked her to marry him before he had half made up his mind. Really, Mr. Johnstone," she continued, almost losing her temper, "you defend the man almost as though you were defending yourself!"
"That"s rather a hard thing to say to a man, isn"t it?"
Johnstone was young enough to be annoyed, though he was amused.
"Then why do you defend the man?" asked Clare, standing still at a turn of the road and facing him.
"I won"t, if we are going to quarrel about a ridiculous book," he answered, looking at her. "My opinion"s not worth enough for that."
"If you have an opinion at all, it"s worth fighting for."
"I don"t want to fight, and I won"t fight with you," he answered, beginning to laugh.
"With me or with any one else--"
"No--not with you," he said with sudden emphasis.
"Why not with me?"
"Because I like you very much," he answered boldly, and they stood looking at each other in the middle of the road.
Clare had started in surprise, and the colour rose slowly to her face, but she would not take her eyes from his. For the first time it seemed to her that he had no power over her.
"I"m sorry," she answered. "For I don"t like you."
"Are you in earnest?" He could not help laughing.
"Yes." There was no mistaking her tone.
Johnstone"s face changed, and for the first time in their acquaintance he was the one to turn his eyes away.
"I"m sorry too," he said quietly. "Shall we turn back?" he asked after a moment"s pause.
"No, I want to walk," answered Clare.
She turned from him, and began to walk on in silence. For some time neither spoke. Johnstone was puzzled, surprised, and a little hurt, but he attributed what she had said to his own roughness in telling her that he liked her, though he could not see that he had done anything so very terrible. He had spoken spontaneously, too, without the least thought of producing an impression, or of beginning to make love to her. Perhaps he owed her an apology. If she thought so, he did, and it could do no harm to try.
"I"m very sorry, if I have offended you just now," he said gently. "I didn"t mean to."
"You didn"t offend me," answered Clare. "It isn"t rude to say that one likes a person."
"Oh--I beg your pardon--I thought perhaps--"
He hesitated, surprised by her very unexpected answer. He could not imagine what she wanted.
"Because I said that I didn"t like you?" she asked.
"Well--yes."