"You can call me a fool, if you like," John interrupted. "I may be one, I suppose, from your point of view. All I know is that I want to be able to offer the woman whom I marry, and who I hope will be the mother of my children, precisely what she offers me. I want a fair bargain, from her point of view as well as mine."
Graillot, who had been refilling his pipe, stopped and glowered at his host.
"What exactly do you mean?" he asked.
"Surely my meaning is plain enough," John replied. "We all have our peculiar tastes and our eccentricities. One of mine has to do with the other sex. I cannot make an amusement of them. It is against all my prejudices."
Graillot carefully completed the refilling of his pipe and lit it satisfactorily. Then he turned once more to John.
"Let us not be mistaken," he said. "You are a purist!"
"You can call me what you like," John retorted. "I do not believe in one law for the woman and another for the man. If a man wants a woman, and we all do more or less, it seems to me that he ought to wait until he finds one whom he is content to make the mother of his children."
Graillot nodded ponderously.
"Something like this I suspected," he admitted. "I felt that there was something extraordinary and unusual about you. If I dared, my young friend, I would write a play about you; but then no one would believe it. Now tell me something. I have heard your principles. We are face to face—men, brothers, and friends. Do you live up to them?"
"I have always done so," John declared.