I often hate her; at other times, I like her very much." Dyce listened with increasing attention.
"Has she any views ?" he inquired.
"Oh, plenty!" Constance answered, with a dry little laugh.
"About social questions--that kind of thing ?" "Especially." "I shouldn't be surprised if she called herself a socialist." "That's just what she does--when she thinks it will annoy people she dislikes." Dyce smiled meditatively.
"I should like to know her.

Yes, I should very much like to know her.
Could you manage it for me ?" Constance did not reply.

She was comparing the Dyce Lashmar of to-day with him of the past, and trying to understand the change that had come about in his talk, his manner.

It would have helped her had she known that, in the ripe experience of his seven and twentieth year, Dyce had arrived at certain conclusions with regard to women, and thereupon had based a method of practical behaviour towards them.

Women, he held, had never been treated with elementary justice.