HOURTIN. Oh, no. The human fist of that date was well able to give such a blow.
BRIGNAC. In fact, a little domestic difference?
HOURTIN [laughing] I can’t diagnose at such an interval. But it is easy to imagine the man trying to drag the woman into his den. She refuses. He raises his fist—a blow to stun her, only he hits rather too hard.
LUCIE. How terrible!
HOURTIN. Those were the manners of our ancestor, the cave man.
BRIGNAC. The world has changed.
MADELEINE. Yes. Since the cave man hypocrisy has been invented.
HOURTIN. And we can imagine further. A rival springs on the ravisher, strangles him, and leaves the two corpses in the midst of the flint weapons and the kitchen utensils of polished stone.
LUCIE. It’s enough to give one a nightmare.