Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/452

462 He. Nay, only hear the little monster! You are really too bad to escape without punishment, and as the first degree of penance you shall have— I entered just in time to interrupt the awarded penance and to hear the complaints of both sides. I said that they were both in fault and both deserved to do penance. Therefore I now sentenced them both to hear some passages from Xenophon's Ekonomia, that they might reflect upon the ideal of a happy marriage according to the views of classical antiquity.

The conversation between the husband and wife in the dialogue of the learned Greek, begins with the charming inquiry, “My wife, do you know why I married you?” and ends with this ideal of wedded life: “That you might attend to my house and look after my servants, so that I may be able, quite free from anxiety, to spend the day at the Forum; if you endeavor in every thing to please me and make me comfortable in my home, then I shall be there your most obedient slave!”

All this was very amusing and edifying to the lovers. The Waldensian had, it is true, quite another ideal of wedded life, one, in which two souls unite themselves to strengthen and gladden each other, during a common labor to carry out the loving plan of a common Father; and of this he spoke later on in the day, whilst little Elsa's head rested on his shoulder and her eyes beamed a joyful Amen to the picture of the future which he sketched out for their life.

I have a great deal to thank Italy for; its heaven