Page:Ann Veronica, a modern love story.djvu/269



"For men have reason, women rhyme    A man scores always, all the time."

This couplet sprang into her mind from nowhere, and immediately begot an endless series of similar couplets that she began to compose and address to Capes. They came teeming distressfully through her aching brain:

"A man can kick, his skirts don't tear;    A man scores always, everywhere.

"His dress for no man lays a snare;    A man scores always, everywhere.     For hats that fail and hats that flare;     Toppers their universal wear;     A man scores always, everywhere.

"Men's waists are neither here nor there;    A man scores always, everywhere.

"A man can manage without hair;    A man scores always, everywhere.

"There are no males at men to stare;    A man scores always, everywhere.

"And children must we women bear—

"Oh, damn!" she cried, as the hundred-and-first couplet or so presented itself in her unwilling brain.

For a time she worried about that compulsory bath and cutaneous diseases.

Then she fell into a fever of remorse for the habit of bad language she had acquired.

"A man can smoke, a man can swear;    A man scores always, everywhere."