Leon.—I do not listen to the gossip.
Jadwiga.—How good you are! I will tell you then why they gossip. A missionary asked a negro what, according to his ideas, constituted evil? The negro thought a while, and then said: "Evil is if some one were to steal my wife." "And what is good?" asked the missionary. "Good is when I steal from some one else." My husband's friends are of the negro's opinion. Every one of them would like to do a good deed and steal some one's wife.
Leon.—It depends on the wife.
Jadwiga.—Yes, but every word and every look is a bait. If the fish passes the bait, the fisherman's self-love is wounded. That is why they slander me (after a while). You great people—you are filled with simplicity. Then you think it depends on the wife?
Leon.—Yes, it does.
Jadwiga.—Morbleu! as my husband says, and if the wife is weary?
Leon.—I bid you good-bye.
Jadwiga.—Why? Does what I say offend you?
Leon.—It does more than offend me. It hurts me. Maybe it will seem strange to you, but here in my breast I am carrying some flowers—although they are withered—dead for a long time. But they are dear to me and just now you are trampling on them.
Jadwiga (with an outburst).—Oh, if those flowers had not died!