I.—"Think! Remember a man who was first married to another man's wife, like myself, and who separated from her in order to marry an Austrian, like myself! Then his little Austrian is torn from him, as mine has been from me, and their only child is kept in the Bohemian mountains as mine is. Do you remember the hero of my romance, On the Open Sea, who commits suicide on an island——"
M.—"Enough! Enough!"
I.—"You don't know that my father's mother was called Neipperg——"
M.—"Stop! Unhappy man!"
I.—"And that my little Christina resembles the greatest murderer of the century to a hair. Only look at her, the little tyrant, the man-tamer at two and a half!"
M.—"You are mad."
I.—"Yes! And what sins have you women formerly committed, since your lot is still harder than ours? See how justly I have called woman our evil angel. Each has his or her deserts."
M.-"To be a woman is a twofold hell."
I.—"And so woman is a twofold devil. As regards reincarnation, that is a Christian doctrine which has been maintained by some of the clergy. Christ said that John the Baptist was Elijah reborn on earth. Is that an authority or not?"
M.—"Yes, but the Roman Church forbids inquiry into secrets."