"You ought to know," she heard Kimberly answer. "You have been very successful in pleasing them."
"And failed where I have most wanted to succeed. Oh, no. I am asking you. What _do_ they like?"
The answer halted. "I can’t tell you. To me, of course, few men seem worth pleasing."
"What should you do to please a man, if you were a woman?"
"I’m asking purely out of curiosity," persisted Lottie. "I have failed. I realize it and I shall never try again. But at the end--I’d like to know."
"You probably would not agree with me," answered Kimberly after a silence, "most women would not. Perhaps it would fail with most men--but as I say, most men wouldn’t interest me, anyway. If I had it to try, I would appeal to a man’s highest nature."
"No, it isn’t nonsense. Only I am not good at analyzing. If I once caught a man in that way I should know I had him fast forever. There is absolutely no use in flinging your mere temptations at him. Keep those quietly in the background. He will go after them fast enough when you have made sure of him on the higher plane. If you are compelled to display your temptations at the start, the case is hopeless. You have surrendered your advantage of the high appeal. Trust him to think about the other side of it, Lottie. You can’t suggest to him anything he doesn’t know, and perhaps--I’m not sure--he prefers to turn to that side when he thinks you are not looking. The difficulty is," he concluded, speaking slowly, "even if you get him from the lower side, he won’t stay hooked. You know how a salmon strikes at a fly? All human experience shows that a man hooked from the side of his lower instincts, will sooner or later shake the bait."
"It must be something even to have him on the hook for a while, Robert."
"No doubt, I’m wrong. And it isn’t, I suppose, of much consequence whether the men stay caught or not. I look at it, probably, with a business instinct. When I do anything, I want it to stay done forever. When I make a deal or fasten a point I want it to stay fastened for all time. That is my nature. Now, that may not be a woman’s nature. You shouldn’t have asked me, don’t you see, because we ’begin’ differently."
"I fancy that’s it, Robert. We ’begin’ differently."