“Yes, I swear to you that I do not love her, and that I have never been her lover.”
“Well then, my dear, to prove that, you must promise me that you will never in your life put your foot inside their door again.”
“No, I am very sorry, but I will not promise that.”
“Why not, if you do not love the woman?”
“It is just because I have no relations with Madame Ernest that I propose to continue to see her and her husband just when it suits me. Besides, listen, my dear love: to-day you are jealous of her and don’t want me to go there any more; in a few days you will be jealous of someone else, and you will forbid me to go somewhere else. Things cannot go on so. I love you, I love you as dearly as on the day we married; but I don’t propose to be your slave. There is nothing more ridiculous than a man who does not dare to take a step without his wife’s permission; there is nothing more impertinent for a woman than to say to her husband: ‘You shall not go here or there, because I do not want you to.’”
“But, Henri, I don’t forbid you to go, I simply beg you not to.”
“No, my dear Eugénie; I am distressed to refuse, but I shall go where I please.”
“And you dare to say that you do not love that woman?”
“If I loved her you would never have known that I went there, you would never have heard of her.”
“So you prefer the friendship of those people to my repose and happiness? You sacrifice my peace of mind to them?”