Husband
(Kissing her on the forehead) You ought to be glad, dear child, that you never have had a glimpse of relations like that. After all most of the poor things deserve pity—it is not for us to throw stones.
Young Wife
But—this pity—it doesn’t seem quite appropriate to me.
Husband
(With gentle benevolence) They deserve it. You young girls of good family, who wait quietly under the care of your parents for the man who desires you in marriage,—you won’t know the misery that drives most of these poor creatures into the arms of sin.
Young Wife
Do all of them really sell themselves?
Husband
I would hardly say that. I don’t mean the material misery alone. There is also—one might call it—a moral misery, a lack of appreciation for what is permissible, and, especially, for what is noble.