“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.

“How blind you are!  In presence of such social drought, such utter absence of general happiness as stamps our time, not to grasp this felicity that is within reach!  Shiver on the forum, and not light a fire at home!  Idiotism can go no farther!  I tell you plainly, go and get married.”

He pointed through the window at Aniela, who with his wife was coming back from the hot-houses, and added:  “There is your happiness.  There it patters in fur boots on the frozen snow.  Take her by weight of gold, by weight in carats rather!  You simply have no home, not only in a physical sense, but in a moral, intellectual meaning; you have no basis, no point of rest, and she will give you all that.  But do not philosophize her away as you have philosophized away your abilities and your thirty-five years of life!”

He could not have told me anything better, nobler, or what chimed in more with my own desires.  I pressed his hands and replied:—­

“No, I will not philosophize her away, because I love her.”

Upon this the ladies entered, and Pani Sniatynska observed:—­

“We heard some disputes when we were leaving, but I see peace is restored.  May I ask what you have been discussing?”

“Woman, madame,” I said.

“And what was the result?”

“As you see, a treaty of peace sealed by a grasp of the hand, and something further may come of it in the course of time.”

The sledge was already waiting at the door.  The short day was drawing to its close, and they had to go back; but as the weather was calm, and the snow on the drive as smooth as a parquetted floor, we resolved, Aniela and I, to accompany them as far as the high-road.