ar and doing so much. But
the women--

Oh, well, you know how women are!

"ISN'T THAT
JUST LIKE A MAN!"

BY
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART

Author of "Dangerous Days,"
"The Amazing Interlude," "K," etc.

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

"ISN'T THAT JUST LIKE A MAN!"

I understand that Mr. Irvin Cobb is going to write a sister article to
this, and naturally he will be as funny as only he can be. It is always
allowable, too, to be humorous about women. They don't mind, because
they are accustomed to it.

But I simply dare not risk my popularity by being funny about men. Why,
bless their hearts (Irvin will probably say of his subject, "bless their
little hearts." Odd, isn't it, how men always have big hearts and women
little ones? But we are good packers. We put a lot in 'em) I could be
terribly funny, if only women were going to read this. They'd
understand. They know all about men. They'd go up-stairs and put on a
negligee and get six baby pillows and dab a little cold cream around
their eyes and then lie down on the couch and read, and they would all
think I must have known their men-folks somewhere.

But the men would read it and cancel the order for my next book, and say
I must be a spinster, living a sort of in-bred existence. Why, I know at
least a hundred good stories about one man alone, and if I published
them he would either grow suspicious and wonder who the man is, or, get
sulky and resent bitterly being laughed at! Which is exactly like a man.
Just little things, too, like always insisting he was extremely calm at
his wedding, when the entire church saw him step off a platform and drop
seven feet into tropical foliage.

You see, women quite frequently have less wit than men, but they don't
take themselves quite so seriously; they view themselves with a certain
somewhat ironical humor. Men love a joke--on the other fellow. But your
really humorous woman loves a joke on herself. That's because women are
less conventional, of course. I can still remember the face of the
horrified gentleman I met one day on the street after luncheon, who had
unconsciously tucked the corner of his luncheon napkin into his watch
pocket along with his watch, and his burning shame when I observed that
his new fashion was probably convenient but certainly novel.

An