human
What can you expect, you women? she said.
gpt
You run after the men for their titles--they've very little else, except debts, poor things--and what is the result? The first result is that though you have bought them you belong to them. Yes, your husband owns his beautiful woman, just as he owns his beautiful horse or his beautiful dog.
human
What then? Once in a blue moon each goes his and her own way without sin. You agree to a sort of partnership for mutual advantage in which you live together in chastity under the same roof. What a life! What an ice-house!
gpt
But in the majority of cases it is quite otherwise. The business purpose served, each is open to other emotions. The man becomes unfaithful, and the woman, if she has any spirit, pays him out tit for tat--and why shouldn't she?
human
But I find that wrong and wicked. Infidelity on the part of the man does not justify infidelity in the woman. The prayer-book says so.
gpt
Once in a hundred years there comes a great passion--Dante and Beatrice, Petrarch and Laura. The woman meets the right man too late. What a tragedy! What a daily and hourly crucifixion! Unless, said the Countess with emphasis,
human
Then marriage is an hypocrisy and an imposture. If I found I loved somebody better than my husband, I should go to him in spite of the law, and society, and title and . . . and everything.
gpt
Of course you would, my dear, said the Countess, smiling at me as at a child,
human
Dear sweet girl! said Alma.
gpt
How could we possibly go without you?