Nan smiled at that well-remembered phrase of her friend's. As a matter of fact, she was not sorry the mothers were coming. She was curious to see Roger's mother, who, for a mother with an only son, had behaved with the most astonishing cordiality about the marriage. A well-to-do widow, she had given Roger a good part of her income. Letty's letters had referred to her as an angel; and Nan was always eager to see Mrs. Lewis at any time. Only she and Letty must waste no time, but set immediately about a process known to them as catching up. This meant that they each asked questions, listening to the answers only so long as they appeared to contain new matter, and then ruthlessly interrupting with a new question. Thus: "Have you seen Bee since she--" "Oh, I meant to tell you--she never did." "Isn't that just like her? She always reminds me of--" "Yes, you wrote me--Roger simply loved it. You knew that Hubert--" "Yes, he cabled me. I thought it was you he--" "So did I--so did he, for that matter--only mamma once said of him--" "Oh, my dear, that heavenly thing about the scrubbing brush! Isn't she priceless--your mother? And she really likes Roger?" "Crazy about him--thinks him too good for me." And so they came to talk about the really important subject--Letty's marriage--Roger's wisdom and kindness and generosity. It amused and delighted Nan to hear her friend talking of men from the point of view of a person who owned one. Mrs. Lewis, who had long ago been obliged to part from an impossible husband, had always been a little more aloof from men, a little more contemptuous of them than of women; and Letitia, although her life was occupied with nothing else, had regarded them as an exciting, possibly hostile and certainly alien tribe. Now it was wonderful to hear her identify herself with a man's point of view-- "We think--" "We feel--" Not for a long time did the old remote tone creep in. They were speaking of men in general, and Letitia said suddenly: "Tell me something, Nan--you have brothers--do you think the cleverest of them are a little silly about women?" Nan's heart gave a leap. Letitia was looking intent. "Running after women, you mean?" "Oh, no!" Letty was quite shocked at the suggestion. "No, I mean believing everything they say. Roger repeats the most fatuous things women say to him, as if they had any importance." Letitia twisted her eyebrows in distress only half comic. Nan hesitated; she knew just the sort of thing Letitia must have in mind. "Well," she said, "I think men often seem rather naïve--particularly scientific men."