He pulled the blankets over his ears.
She asked him again if he—if he didn’t want her to be his wife any more?
“Yes, of course, he wanted her! But he had been so dreadfully bored all the evening, he could never live through another evening like it.”
“Let them forget all about it then!”
And they forgot all about it and continued loving one another.
On the following evening, when the green forester came for his wife, he was told that she had gone to the store rooms. He was alone in the counting-house and sat down on a chair. Presently a glass door was opened and the young ass put in his head: “Are you here, Annie?”
No, it was only her husband!
He rose and went away. The young ass called his wife Annie, and was evidently on very familiar terms with her. It was more than he could bear.
When she came home they had a scene. She reproached him with the fact that he did not take his views on the emancipation of women seriously, otherwise he could not be annoyed at her being on familiar terms with her fellow-clerks. He made matters worse by admitting that his views were not to be taken seriously.
“Surely he didn’t mean what he was saying! Had he changed his mind? How could he!”