21

     ]

    “I’ve always been interested in what he had to say of his day at the office, but he doesn’t seem to care at all about

     my

    day. He seems so awfully self-engrossed.”

    The truth probably is that they are both self-engrossed, but women can dissemble and men cannot. It is another proof of their invincible boyishness, this total inability to pretend interest. Even the averagest man is no hypocrite. He tries it sometimes, and fails pitifully. The successful male dissembler is generally a crook. But the most honest woman in the world is

     often

    driven to pretense, although she may call it

     savoir faire

    . She pretends, because pretense is the oil that lubricates society. Have you ever seen a man when some neighbors who are unpopular drop in for an evening call? After they are gone, his wife says:

    “I do wish you wouldn’t bite the Andersons when they come in, Joe!”

    “Bite them! I was civil, wasn’t I?”

    “Well, you can call it that.”

    He is ready to examine the window locks, but he turns and surveys her, and he is honestly puzzled.

    “What I can’t make out,” he says, “is how you can fall all over yourself to those people, when you know you detest them. Thank heavens, I’m no hypocrite.”

    Then he locks the windows and stalks up-stairs,

     [p

     22

     ]

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