"True," said Mr. Moses, "you’ve hit ’em there. As soon as a girl answers me the direct opposite of what I expect, then I know that girl’s a child no more. She’s grown up, and ’tis time for her to put up her hair and let down her dress." "Never the expected thing," repeated Crocker, meditatively. "They cry when they ought to laugh; they cuss when they ought to cherish; they fondle when they ought to whip. They forgive the wrong sins; they punish the wrong men; they break the wrong hearts." "And when they’ve done their bitter worst," added Charles Moses; "when they’ve set a man against Heaven, and life in general, and made him pretty well hungry to creep into his grave and get out of it; when they’ve driven him to the edge of madness and forced him to damn and blast ’em to the pit--then what do the long-haired humans do?" "Why, they jump into his lap," declared Mr. Crocker, "and kiss his eyes, and press their soft carcases against him, all purring and cooing--half cats and half pigeons that they be!" "And the men give way," summed up Mr. Moses. "Leastways the manly, large-minded sort, like ’Dumpling’ and me and Crocker. We can’t stand against ’em--not for a moment." "We take, when our turn comes, in fear and trembling," continued Bartley, "and we hope we’ll be one of the lucky ones." "The fear and trembling comes afterwards, as you’ll find some day, Bartley, and as Screech here may find any day," foretold Moses. "Every man backs his own judgment and will lay you any odds he’s drawn a prize." "’Tis always the other people be fools in this world," declared Screech. "It holds of life in general. ’Tis said the world be full of fools, yet no man will ever allow he is one." Mr. Snell spoke. "I’m sure you hear of happy marriages here and there," he said doubtfully. "So you do, Simon. You hear of ’em--same as you hear of pixies. But you don’t see ’em. Leastways I don’t," answered Bartley. "Present company excepted, I hope," said Screech. "You forget Mrs. Shillabeer also," murmured Mattacott. "I’m sure nobody here knows more about marriage than what the ’Dumpling’ do. He’s seen a happy marriage." "In a way, yes," admitted the host; "and also in a way, no. You can’t be right down happy with a woman--not if you love her as well as I loved the wife." "’Perfect love casteth out fear,’ however," quoted Mr. Moses, vaguely.