Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/334

 "What fear?" asked the lady.

"Namely, let her fear her husband! That's the fear I mean!"

"But, my friend, that time has passed," the lady said, almost with annoyance.

"No, madam, that time never can pass. Just as Eve was created from the rib of a man, so she will always remain, to the end of the world," said the old man, shaking his head so sternly and victoriously that the clerk at once decided that victory was on the side of the merchant, and so laughed out loud.

"You men judge like this," said the lady, looking at us, and not giving in. "You have taken liberty for yourselves, and you want to keep woman in her chamber, but you take all kinds of liberties yourselves."

"Nobody gives them such a permission. However, there will be no increase in the house through a man, whereas a woman is a weak vessel," the merchant continued, in an impressive voice. The impressiveness of the merchant's intonations obviously vanquished his hearers, and even the lady felt herself crushed, but she would not submit.

"Yes. But I think you will agree with me that woman is a human being and has feelings like a man. What is she to do if she does not love her husband?"

"If she does not love?" the merchant repeated, austerely, moving his brows and lips. "Never mind, she will love him!" This unexpected argument gave special pleasure to the clerk, and he emitted a sound of approval.

"No, she will not," said the lady. "If there is no love, you can't force her to love."

"Well, and if the wife is false to her husband, what then?" said the lawyer.

"That is not supposed to happen," said the merchant, "and has to be watched."