"Well!" said Miss Pole, sitting down with the decision of a person
who has made up her mind as to the nature of life and the world
(and such people never tread lightly, or seat themselves without a
bump), "well, Miss Matty! men will be men. Every mother's son of
them wishes to be considered Samson and Solomon rolled into one--
too strong ever to be beaten or discomfited--too wise ever to be
outwitted. If you will notice, they have always foreseen events,
though they never tell one for one's warning before the events
happen. My father was a man, and I know the sex pretty well."
She had talked herself out of breath, and we should have been very
glad to fill up the necessary pause as chorus, but we did not
exactly know what to say, or which man had suggested this diatribe
against the sex; so we only joined in generally, with a grave shake
of the head, and a soft murmur of "They are very incomprehensible,
certainly!"
"Now, only think," said she. "There, I have undergone the risk of
having one of my remaining teeth drawn (for one is terribly at the
mercy of any surgeon-dentist; and I, for one, always speak them
fair till I have got my mouth out of their clutches), and, after
all, Mr Hoggins is too much of a man to own that he was robbed last
night."
"Not robbed!" exclaimed the chorus.
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