You went, I hear, and had an
explanation. That may have been right or wrong; I know not; at
least, you had stirred her temper. At the council she insults you;
well, you insult her back - a man to a woman, a husband to his wife,
in public! Next upon the back of this, you propose - the story runs
like wildfire - to recall the power of signature. Can she ever
forgive that? a woman - a young woman - ambitious, conscious of
talents beyond yours? Never, Otto. And to sum all, at such a
crisis in your married life, you get into a window corner with that
ogling dame von Rosen. I do not dream that there was any harm; but
I do say it was an idle disrespect to your wife. Why, man, the
woman is not decent.'
'Gotthold,' said Otto, 'I will hear no evil of the Countess.'
'You will certainly hear no good of her,' returned Gotthold; 'and if
you wish your wife to be the pink of nicety, you should clear your
court of demi-reputations.'
'The commonplace injustice of a by-word,' Otto cried. 'The
partiality of sex. She is a demirep; what then is Gondremark? Were
she a man - '
'It would be all one,' retorted Gotthold roughly. 'When I see a
man, come to years of wisdom, who speaks in double-meanings and is
the braggart of his vices, I spit on the other side. "You, my
friend," say I, "are not even a gentleman." Well, she's not even a
lady.'
'She is the best friend I have, and I choose that she shall be
respected,' Otto said.
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