Is it not so ?" "Oh, man,--that's another affair." "Then, according to you, to man everything is permissible ?" "No one gives him this permission; only, if the man behaves badly outside, the family is not increased thereby; but the woman, the wife, is a fragile vessel," continued the merchant, severely.
His tone of authority evidently subjugated his hearers.

Even the lady felt crushed, but she did not surrender.
"Yes, but you will admit, I think, that woman is a human being, and has feelings like her husband.

What should she do if she does not love her husband ?" "If she does not love him!" repeated the old man, stormily, and knitting his brows; "why, she will be made to love him." This unexpected argument pleased the clerk, and he uttered a murmur of approbation.
"Oh, no, she will not be forced," said the lady.

"Where there is no love, one cannot be obliged to love in spite of herself." "And if the wife deceives her husband, what is to be done ?" said the lawyer.
"That should not happen," said the old man.

"He must have his eyes about him." "And if it does happen, all the same?
You will admit that it does happen ?" "It happens among the upper classes, not among us," answered the old man.