Burnamy is simply consoling himself, and I don't blame him." "Consoling himself with a pivotal girl!" cried Mrs.March.
"Yes, with a pivotal girl.

Her pivotality may be a nervous idiosyncrasy, or it may be the effect of tight lacing; perhaps she has to keep turning and twisting that way to get breath.

But attribute the worst motive: say it is to make people look at her! Well, Burnamy has a right to look with the rest; and I am not going to renounce him because he takes refuge with one pretty girl from another.

It's what men have been doing from the beginning of time." "Oh, I dare say!" "Men," he went on, "are very delicately constituted; very peculiarly.
They have been known to seek the society of girls in general, of any girl, because some girl has made them happy; and when some girl has made them unhappy, they are still more susceptible.

Burnamy may be merely amusing himself, or he may be consoling himself; but in either case I think the pivotal girl has as much right to him as Miss Triscoe.