“Won’t you refuse?”
“If your request is reasonable, I am willing—”
“Ah, already—that’s a true husband’s word—if—”
“Come, what is it?”
“I want to learn to ride on horseback.”
“Now, is it a possible thing, Caroline?”
Caroline looks out of the window, and tries to wipe away a dry tear.
“Listen,” resumes Adolphe; “I cannot let you go alone to the riding-school; and I cannot go with you while business gives me the annoyance it does now. What’s the matter? I think I have given you unanswerable reasons.”
Adolphe foresees the hiring of a stable, the purchase of a pony, the introduction of a groom and of a servant’s horse into the establishment—in short, all the nuisance of female lionization.
When a man gives a woman reasons instead of giving her what she wants —well, few men have ventured to descend into that small abyss called the heart, to test the power of the tempest that suddenly bursts forth there.