"You will do well. I shall be pleased, I confess, to see the business settled without taking it into court."
"I should like, if possible, to carry home with me some concessions of your lordship in response to this submission."
"What concessions? It seems to me that the countess has no right to insist upon any concession. The whole of her property, as you know, is my own."
"I fear that is the case."
"I shall probably make certain changes in the administration of the property, now my property. I shall relieve the worthy captain of its control. As regards any other point you must acknowledge that you have treated me with insults intolerable; you are not in a position to make terms. But what do you ask?"
"First, freedom from personal molestation."
"That is granted at once. You may tell the countess that on no consideration will I see her, nor shall I exercise any marital rights. When she consents to confess her falsehood, and to ask pardon for her offences, I may perhaps extend my personal protection, not otherwise."
"As for her allowance—her maintenance?"
"Your reverence is not serious. She says that she is not my wife. The law says, or, is prepared to say, that she is. By the law I am compelled to maintain her. Let her, therefore, invoke the intervention of the law. To procure this she will have to confess her many perjuries. Till then, nothing. Do you understand, sir? Nothing."