ithout suspicion, uninformed as
to her husband's past, the wife persists in her belief in his manly
superiority until this belief has become a fixed habit of thought, and
then even a cruel revelation cannot take him from her."[89]

In southern Italy,--especially in Sicily,--Arabian oriental conceptions of
woman still prevail. During her whole life woman is a grown-up child. No
woman, not even the most insignificant woman laborer, can be on the street
without an escort. On the other hand, the boys are emancipated very early.
With pity and arrogance the sons look down on the mother, who must be
accompanied in the street by her sons.

"Close intellectual relations between man and woman cannot as yet be
developed, owing to the generally low education of woman, to her
subordination, and to her intellectual bondage. While still in the
schools the boy is trained for political life. The average Italian woman
participates in politics even less than the German woman; her influence is
purely moral. If the Italian woman wishes to accept any office in a
society, she must have the consent of her husband attested by a notary.
Just as in ancient times, the non-professional interests of the husband
are, in great part, elsewhere than at home. The opportunity daily to
discuss political and other current questions with men companions is found
by the German man in the smaller cities while taking his evening pint of
beer. The Italian man finds this opportunity sometimes in the cafe,
sometimes in the public places, where every evening the men congregate for
hours. So the educated man in Italy (even more than in Germany) has no
need of the intellectual qualities of his wife. Moreover, his need for an
educated wife is the less because his misguided precocity prevents him
from acquiring anything but an essentially general education. The
restricted intellectual relationship between husband and wife is explained
partly by the fact that the _cicisbeo_[90] still exists. This relation
ought to be, and generally is, Platonic and publicly known. The wife
permits her friend (the _cicisbeo_) to escort her to the theater and
elsewhere in a carriage; the husband also escorts a woman friend. So
husband and wife share the inwardly moral unsoundness of the medieval
service of love (_Minnedienst_). At any rate this custom reveals the fact
that after the honeymoon the husband and wife do not have overmuch to say
to each other. In this way there takes place, to