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have to give in to him once he’s really determined; whether
you’re in the right or not, you have to give in. Else you break
something. But I must say, Ted ‘ud give in to me sometimes,
when I was set on a thing, and in the wrong. So I suppose it
cuts both ways.’
’And that’s how you are with all your patients?’ asked
Connie.
’Oh, That’s different. I don’t care at all, in the same way.
I know what’s good for them, or I try to, and then I just
contrive to manage them for their own good. It’s not like
anybody as you’re really fond of. It’s quite different. Once
you’ve been really fond of a man, you can be affectionate to
almost any man, if he needs you at all. But it’s not the same
thing. You don’t really CARE. I doubt, once you’ve REALLY
cared, if you can ever really care again.’
These words frightened Connie.
’Do you think one can only care once?’ she asked.
’Or never. Most women never care, never begin to. They
don’t know what it means. Nor men either. But when I see a
woman as cares, my heart stands still for her.’
’And do you think men easily take offence?’
’Yes! If you wound them on their pride. But aren’t women
the same? Only our two prides are a bit different.’
Connie pondered this. She began again to have some
misgiving about her gag away. After all, was she not giving
her man the go-by, if only for a short time? And he knew it.
That’s why he was so queer and sarcastic.
Still! the human existence is a good deal controlled by
the machine of external circumstance. She was in the pow-