ently 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. "And if any husband is found who is such a fool as not to rule his
wife, he will not have robbed her. But no scandal, nevertheless. Love
or not, but do not disturb the household. Every husband can govern his
wife. He has the necessary power. It is only the imbecile who does not
succeed in doing so."

Everybody was silent. The clerk moved, advanced, and, not wishing to lag
behind the others in the conversation, began with his eternal smile:

"Yes, in the house of our employer, a scandal has arisen, and it is very
difficult to view the matter clearly. The wife loved to amuse herself,
and began to go astray. He is a capable and serious man. First, it was
with the book-keeper. The husband tried to bring her back to reason
through kindness. She did not change her conduct. She plunged into all
sorts of beastliness. She began to steal his money. He beat her, but
she grew worse and worse. To an unbaptized, to a pagan, to a Jew (saving
your permission), she went in succession for her caresses. What could
the employer do? He has dropped her entirely, and now he lives as a
bachelor. As for her, she is dragging in the depths."

"He is an imbecile," said the old man. "If from the first he had not
allowed her to go in her own fashion, and had kept a firm hand upon her,
she would be living honestly, no danger. Liberty must be taken away from
the beginning. Do not trust yourself to your horse upon the highway. Do
not trust yourself to your wife at home."

At that moment the conductor passed, asking for the tickets for the next
station. The old man gave up