The attempt at communication had been a failure.
"We don't seem to understand each other," she said.
"Shall I say something that will make you very angry ?" he replied.
"It won't," said Rachel.
"Well, then; no woman has what I may call the political instinct.

You have very great virtues; I am the first, I hope, to admit that; but I have never met a woman who even saw what is meant by statesmanship.

I am going to make you still more angry.

I hope that I never shall meet such a woman.

Now, Miss Vinrace, are we enemies for life ?" Vanity, irritation, and a thrusting desire to be understood, urged her to make another attempt.
"Under the streets, in the sewers, in the wires, in the telephones, there is something alive; is that what you mean?
In things like dust-carts, and men mending roads?
You feel that all the time when you walk about London, and when you turn on a tap and the water comes ?" "Certainly," said Richard.