This elastic classification does not obtain with either geniuses or fools.  It deals with the average man as the average girl knows him, and may refer to every man in her acquaintance or only to one.  It certainly must refer to one!  Misery loves company to such an extent that I could not bear to think that there was any girl living who did not occasionally have to grapple with the problem of at least one man in the raw, if only for her own discipline.

You cannot argue with the untrained man under thirty-five.  In fact, I never argue with anybody, either man or woman, because women are not reasonable beings and men are too reasonable.  I never am willing to follow a chain of reasoning to its logical conclusion, because, if I do, men can make me admit so many things that are not true.  I abhor a syllogism.  Alas, how often have I picked my cautious way through three-quarters of one, only to sit down at the critical moment, declaring I would not go another step, and then to hear some argumentative man cry, “But you admitted all previous steps.  Don’t you know that this naturally must follow?” Well, perhaps it does follow, only I don’t believe it is true.  It may be very clever of the men to reason, and perhaps I am very stupid not to be able to admit the truth of their conclusions, but I feel like declaring with Josh Billings, “I’d rather not know so much than to know so much that ain’t so.”

Conversation with the untrained man under thirty-five is equally impossible, because he never converses; he only talks.  And your chief accomplishment of being a good listener is entirely thrown away on him, because a mere talker never cares whether you listen or not as long as you do not interrupt him.  He only wants the floor and the sound of his own voice.  It is the trained man over thirty-five who can converse and who wishes you to respond.

The untrained man desires to be amused.  The trained man wishes to amuse.  A man under thirty-five is in this world to be made happy.  The man over thirty-five tries to make you happy.

There is no use of uttering a protest.  You simply must wait, and let life take it out of him.  The man under thirty-five is being trained in a thousand ways every day that he lives.  Some learn more quickly than others.  It depends on the type of man and on the length of time he is willing to remain in the raw.

You can do little to help him, if you are the first girl to take a hand at him.  You can but prepare him to be a little more amenable to the next girl.  His mind is not on you.  It is centred on himself.  You are only an entity to him, not an individual.  He cares nothing for your likes and dislikes, your cares or hopes or fears.  He only wishes you to be pretty and well dressed.  Have a mind if you will.  He will not know it.  Have a heart and a soul.  They do not concern him, because he cannot see them.  He likes to have you tailor-made.  You are a Girl to him.  That’s all.