It was small wonder that our lectures were not a success; and
none at all that our, or at least Terry's, advances were so ill
received. The reason for my own comparative success was at first
far from pleasing to my pride.
"We like you the best," Somel told me, "because you seem
more like us."
"More like a lot of women!" I thought to myself disgustedly,
and then remembered how little like "women," in our derogatory
sense, they were. She was smiling at me, reading my thought.
"We can quite see that we do not seem like--women--to you.
Of course, in a bi-sexual race the distinctive feature of each sex
must be intensified. But surely there are characteristics enough
which belong to People, aren't there? That's what I mean about you
being more like us--more like People. We feel at ease with you."
Jeff's difficulty was his exalted gallantry. He idealized
women, and was always looking for a chance to "protect" or to
"serve" them. These needed neither protection nor service.
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