But though she recognized an egotist in the settee, she felt none of that usual shutting of doors in her mind which meant clearing ship for action; on the contrary her instinct told her that this man was somehow completely pregnable and quite defenseless. When Ardita defied convention--and of late it had been her chief amusement--it was from an intense desire to be herself, and she felt that this man, on the contrary, was preoccupied with his own defiance.