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You didn't mind. It was sweet, in a way. It's not that men didn't [i:lit]want[/i:lit] women to indulge in these difficult objects of conversation. It felt more as if they wanted to protect women's irrational, easily startled minds from these dreadful, uncouth male topics. Bless them, they seemed genuinely concerned, even if it was the most misplaced example of good intentions in the history of mankind.
When women had to be part of the conversation, such as this evening, men would strive to avoid such topics altogether, but if that was impossible, gentlemen would be quite considerate. Why, they would even take the time and explain everything, talking slower and using smaller words. It was absolutely charming. You would, of course, eat it all up, innocently nodding, and asking for clarifications where necessary. You knew full well that in these gentlemens' minds you would be unburdened by the responsibility of actually understanding and discussing these things at a deeper level. They would no sooner suspect you of being capable of discussing these complex topics than they would expect the steak on their dinner plate to suddenly share its opinion on shares of the Imperial Bank or troop movements in Lydia.
This usually made things very, very easy for you.
Besides, there was nothing men would discuss in the smoking room that they wouldn't repeat over dinner, if you batted your eyelashes in a dumb enough manner. For the really hard nuts to crack - the principled ones, for example - well, for that you'd have to be in private.
