"Very well, let it be woman."
"My good friend, do you not perceive on what brittle foundation you are building human happiness?"
"On about as brittle a foundation as life,—no more nor less!"
I did not want to drift into a discussion of life and death, and pulled Sniatynski up.
"For mercy's sake, do not generalize about individual happiness. You chanced to find the right woman, another might not."
He would not even listen to that. According to his view, ninety out of a hundred were successful. Women were better, purer, and nobler than men.
"We are rascals all, in comparison with them!" he shouted, waving his arms and snaking his leonine mane. "Nothing but rascals! It is I who say it,—I, who study mankind closely, if only for the reason that I am a playwright."
He was sitting astride on his chair, attacking me, as it were, with the chairback, and went on with his usual impetuosity:—
"There are, as Dumas says, apes from the land of Nod, who know neither curb nor bridle; but what are eyes given for but to see that you do not take to wife an ape from Nod? Generally speaking a woman does not betray her husband nor deceive him, unless he himself corrupts her heart, tramples on her feelings, or repulses and estranges her by his meanness, his selfishness, narrowness, and his miserable, worthless nature. You must love her! Let her feel that she is not only your female, but the crown of your head, as precious as your child and friend; wear her close to your heart, let her feel the warmth of it, and you may rest in peace; year after year she will cling closer to you, until you two are like Siamese twins. If you do not give her all that, you pervert her, estrange her by your worthlessness,—and she will leave you. She will leave you as soon as she sees nobler hands stretched out for her; she is forced to do it, as this warmth, this appreciation, are as necessary to her life as the air she breathes."
He charged me with the chairback as with a battering ram. I retreated before him until we had come close to the window; there he jumped up.