The speed slackened still further. Now we were rumbling along at a speed which made conversation easy. The blue eyes gave me another keen glance. "Women burden their memories with a thousand trivialities. Men brush them aside, and keep to the few that count. In the big things of life they are less forgetful than women!" I smiled, a slow, superior smile, and spoke in a forbearing voice:-- "Do you think you--er--_really_ understand very much about women?" "No--I don't. How can I? I don't know any," he replied bluntly, and the answer was so surprisingly, illogically different from what I expected, that involuntarily I laughed, and went on laughing while he stammered and tried to explain. "Of course I have my opinion--every fellow has. One has eyes. One can't go through life without _seeing_. But, personally, it's quite true. I _don't_ know any. Never have done!" "Your mother?" "You would think so, but we are too much alike--tongue-tied--can't say what we feel. She is more at home with my sister, who chatters from morning till night, and has no reticences, no susceptibilities. We care for each other; to a point we are good friends, but beyond that-- strangers." I didn't laugh any more. "Your sister, then. Don't you two--?" "No. She was educated abroad. She married the year she came out. She lives in Scotland. Nominally we are brother and sister; actually the merest acquaintances. She's a nice girl--generous, affectionate. But we don't touch." "Delphine?" "That child!" His shoulders moved with a gesture of dismissal, as if the suggestion was too absurd for discussion. Poor Delphine, how her vanity would have suffered if she had been there at the moment! I suppose my face was expressive, for he added in quick explanation: "She's a nice child. I'm fond of her, but she is still waiting to grow up. It's perfectly true, Miss Wastneys, I know no women. They have been a sealed book to me." I was sorry for the big lonely thing. It must be hard to be born with a temperament which keeps one closed, as it were, within iron doors, while all the time the poor hungry soul longs to get out. I felt glad that I was made the other way round. At the same time it seemed a good opportunity to put in a word for my own sex. I straightened my back, and tried to look solemn and elderly. I spoke in deep, impressive tones:--