It is silly to mind things so; but Jack accuses me of
the same sort of thing. He says that women can't let people alone;
he says that women don't really want to DO anything, but only to
SEEM to have their way."
"Well, then, it appears we are both in the same box," said Howard,
"and we must console each other and grieve over being so much
misunderstood."
He felt that he had spoken rather cynically, and that he had
somehow hurt and checked the girl. He did not like the thought; but
he felt that he had spoken sensibly in not allowing the situation
to become sentimental. There was a little silence; and then Maud
said, rather timidly: "Do you like going back?"
"No," said Howard, "I don't. I have become curiously interested in
this place, and I am lazy. Just now the life of the Don seems to me
rather intolerable. I don't want to teach Greek prose, I don't want
to go to meetings; I don't want to gossip about appointments, and
little intrigues, and bonfires, and College rows. I want to live
here, and walk on the Downs and write my book. I don't want to be
stuffy, as Jack said. But it will be all right, when I have taken
the plunge; and after I have been back a week, this will all fade
into a sort of impossibly pleasant dream."
He was again conscious that he had somehow hurt the girl. She
looked at him with a troubled face, and then said, "Yes, that is
the advantage which men have. I sometimes wonder if it would not be
better for me to have some work away from here.
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