“Latin! Great Scott! Are the girls to be ruined?”
“They are to know everything a man knows, so that when the time comes, their marriage will be a true marriage.”
“But, my love, all husbands don’t know Latin! I don’t know more than one single word, and that is ‘ablative.’ And we have been happy in spite of it. Moreover, there is a movement to strike off Latin from the plan of instruction for boys, as a superfluous accomplishment. Doesn’t this teach you a lot? Isn’t it enough that the men are ruined, are the women to be ruined, too? Ottilia, Ottilia, what have I done to you, that you should treat me like this!”
“Supposing we dropped that matter.—Our love, William, has not been what it should be. It has been sensual!”
“But, my darling, how could we have had children, if it hadn’t? And it has not been sensual only.”
“Can a thing be both black and white? Tell me that!”
“Of course, it can. There’s your sunshade for instance, it is black outside and white inside.”
“Sophist!”
“Listen to me, sweetheart, tell me in your own way the thoughts which are in your heart; don’t talk like Ottilia’s books. Don’t let your head run away with you; be yourself again, my sweet, darling little wife.”
“Yours, your property, bought with your labour.”