"You're very difficult to please. I said you had been wise, as things have turned out. I didn't say I thought you so wise a year ago. If you knew anything about women you'd see how great a concession I've made in acknowledging that you were right, and I was wrong. Now there's a marriage in question much more unsatisfactory than that would have been you sit by and do nothing. You can't possibly like it, and I know quite well why you're giving in. I don't think you ought." "Why do you suppose I am giving in?" "Because you're so weak with your girls that you daren't go against them. You're afraid they wouldn't be pleased with you." He laughed again. "Illogical creature!" he said. "B wasn't at all pleased with me, and I stuck out, for her sake." "And made an awful lot of fuss about it too. You're afraid of the same thing happening with Caroline, and you daren't face it. That's the plain truth behind all this talk of her knowing exactly what she wants, and your accepting her judgment rather than your own. She knows exactly what she wants now because she's in love. A woman can't judge a man when she's in love with him." "Perhaps not; but she can judge him before, and Caroline has known this particular man for over a year. So have I, and I say that there's a lot more in him than a person like you can take into account." "Ah, now you're being abominably rude, which shows that I've made an impression on you. No man can stand being put in the wrong. If you had half the pluck that you think you have you'd risk Caroline behaving to you like B did, and save her from making a mistake." "You see, I don't think she is making a mistake. You don't know Caroline as well as I do." "I know Caroline very well. And I know women in general much better than you do." "On the outside, perhaps. But you're rather a shallow character yourself, and one wouldn't expect you to understand everything about a girl like Caroline. You're also the least little bit of a snob. Most people are, and it's nothing particular against you." "It's no use trying to make me angry, because you won't succeed. If I can stand being called a snob I can stand anything, and it doesn't make the least impression on me. Besides, it's a ridiculous charge in this connection." "You don't object to young Bradby for anything that he is in himself; you only object because you don't think he's a good match for Caroline."