'I might as well be a snake as a woman.' Those were just her words, and, God help her, I do believe there was something true about them, although for the life of me I don't know why it was." Henry looked at Horace with the eyes of a philosopher.

"Maybe it was because she wanted to charm," he said.
Horace shot a surprised glance at him.

He had not expected anything like that from Henry, even though he had long said to himself that there were depths below the commonplace surface.
"Perhaps you are right," he said, reflectively.

"I don't know but you are.

She was a great beauty, and possibly the knowledge of it made her demand too much, long for too much, so that people dimly realized it and were repelled instead of being attracted.