Ladies Must Live | Page 7

feel like that," she said, "not sorry, I mean, to go
on this expedition. Because it was extremely wicked of me to forget my
father's coat, and this was obviously the occasion to make amends, but
there was no one to take me--"
"No one to take you?"
"Oh, I suppose one of the grooms might have driven me over, but I
should have hated that. There was no one else. Jack is much too selfish,
and I wouldn't have gone with that Wickham person for anything in the
world, even if he had ever driven a sleigh, which I am sure he hasn't."
"And how about Mr. Hickson?" Riatt asked. "Wasn't he a possibility?"
"What has Nancy Almar told you about her brother and me?"
"Nothing but what he told me himself in every look and word--that he
loves you."
Christine sighed.
He smiled at her.
"And you're glad of it," he said.
"You mean I care for him?"
"I don't know anything about that, but you're glad he cares for you."
"You're utterly mistaken."
"How would you feel if another woman came and took him away from
you to-morrow?"

"Took him away from me?" cried Christine, in a tone of surprise that
made Riatt laugh aloud.
"That's the wonderful thing about the so-called weaker sex," he said.
"Saying 'no' seems to have no terrors to them at all. The timidest girl
will refuse a man with no more trouble and anxiety than she would
expend on refusing a dinner invitation; whereas men, with all their
vaunted courage, are absolutely at the mercy of a determined woman. I
have a friend who has just married a girl--whom he three times
explicitly refused--only because she asked him to."
Miss Fenimer looked at him thoughtfully.
"Surely you exaggerate," she said.
He shook his head sadly.
"I wish I did," he returned, "but I assure you that is the great
secret--that any man would rather marry any woman than refuse her to
her face. You see, no graceful way for a man to say 'no' has ever been
discovered."
"Why, you poor defenseless creatures!" said Christine. "I'll teach you
some ways immediately. I couldn't bear to think of your going about a
prey to the first woman who proposed to you. Let us begin our lessons
immediately. Have I your attention?"
"Completely."
"Let me see. In the first place there are several general types of
proposal. There is the calmly rational, the passionate whirlwind, the
dangerously controlled, or volcano under a sheet of ice--" she broke off.
"I don't know how women do it," she said. "I only know about men."
He smiled, "But you admit to knowing all about them, I gather?"
It would have been folly to deny it.
"And then there's the meltingly pathetic," she went on. "I imagine that's

what women attempt oftenest. Let us begin with that. Now you are to
suppose that I, with tears streaming down my face, have just confessed
that I have always looked up to you as a sort of god, that I hardly
dare--"
"Wait, wait!" cried Riatt. "This is by far the most interesting part of the
lesson, and you go so fast. I have no imagination. I don't know how it
would be, you must say all those things."
"Do I have to cry?" said Christine.
Riatt debated the point.
"No," he answered at length, "I can imagine the tears, but everything
else you must act out. Particularly that part about my seeming like a
god to you."
"But how in the world can I teach you what to do, if I have to act a part
myself?"
"Well, before we begin, just give me a sketch of what I ought to do."
"You must be very cold and firm, and explain to me that though my
mistake is natural, you are really not a god at all; and then that gives
you an excuse to talk a great deal about yourself, and tell how wicked
and human and splendid you are, and that you are not worthy of a
simple, good girl like myself, and how you don't love me anyhow. And
then the essential thing is to go away quickly, and end the interview
before I have a chance to begin all over again."
He looked doubtfully at the snow.
"Must I get out and walk home?" he asked.
"No," she said. "I think that's too complicated. We might try an easier
one to begin. Suppose we do the calmly rational first. I explain to you
that I have watched you from boyhood, and have come to the
conclusion that our tastes, our intellects, our--"

"Oh, no," said Riatt, "there's really no use in going on with that. Even I
should have no difficulty with any lady who approached me