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As a matter of fact Marjorie had no female intimates—she considered girls stupid.

This quote is introduced in Part II of the story, after Marjorie and Bernice return home from the party featured in the opening scene. Though Marjorie is wildly popular, she is also quite cool. She is disinterested in other women’s needs or wants, having cast others aside in pursuit of her own gains of recreation and social capital. Bernice longs to be Marjorie’s friend and confidant, but Marjorie finds Bernice’s ignorance about social norms tiresome. She helps Bernice out of a sense of familial obligation and of self-preservation, and she cares nothing for Bernice’s feelings, regarding her as a prop for her own continued successes.

“Well,” said Marjorie, “no girl can permanently bolster up a lame-duck visitor, because these days it’s every girl for herself.”

Marjorie makes this statement to her mother about Bernice during her post-party rant about her cousin’s social ineptitude. Here Marjorie states plainly the rule by which she understands society’s expectations of females and outright rejects them. She is much more interested in searching out what she wants than performing qualities considered “feminine,” which include propping up a visitor like Bernice, who will divert attention from her as she pursues her pleasures. Marjorie’s relationships are entirely transactional, either with boys who can give her attention and status, or with other girls who can introduce her to boys and act as ballasts in social situations. In Bernice’s current state of incompetence, there is nothing she can provide for Marjorie, making her a hurdle over which Marjorie needs to climb or figure out a way for Bernice to have a net neutral effect on her.

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