human
It was taken out of the hands of a woman who was in the act of posting it, I said.
gpt
She confessed that it was one of a number of such letters which had been inspired, if not written, by your friend Alma.
human
My friend Alma!
gpt
Yes, your friend Alma.
human
So that's how it is to be, is it? In spite of the admission you have just made you wish to imply that this (holding out the letter)
gpt
But it doesn't matter a rush to me who is at the bottom of the accusation contained in this letter. There's only one thing of any consequence--is it true?
human
It is perfectly true.
gpt
Then you have broken your marriage vows--is that it?
human
Yes, if you call it so.
gpt
Call it so? Call it so? Good heavens, what do _you_ call it?
human
But perhaps you wish me to understand that this man whom I was so foolish as to invite to my house abused my hospitality and betrayed my wife. Is that what you mean?
gpt
No, I said.
human
He observed the laws of hospitality much better than you did, and if I am betrayed I betrayed myself.
gpt
What? You mean that you yourself . . . deliberately . . . Good God!
human
I suppose you've not forgotten what happened at the time of our marriage . . . your resistance and the ridiculous compact I submitted to? Why did I submit? Because I thought your innocence, your convent-bred ideas, and your ignorance of the first conditions of matrimony. . . . But I've been fooled, for you now tell me . . . after all my complacency . . . that you have deliberately. . . . In the name of God do you know what you are? There's only one name for a woman who does what you've done. Do you want me to tell you what that name is?
gpt
Why don't you speak? he cried, lifting his voice in his rage.
human
Don't you understand what a letter like this is calling you?
gpt
You can spare yourself these blasphemies. If I have done wrong, it is I, and not my Church, that is to blame for it.
human
he cried.
gpt
Damn it, have you lost all sense of a woman's duty to her husband? While you have been married to me and I have been fool enough not to claim you as a wife because I thought you were only fit company for the saints and angels, you have been prostituting yourself to this blusterer, this . . .
human
That is a lie, I said, stepping up to him in the middle of the floor.
gpt
It's true that I am married to you, but _he_ is my real husband and you . . . you are nothing to me at all.
human
Nothing to you, am I? You don't mind bearing my name, though, and when your time comes you'll expect it to cover your disgrace.
gpt
That's not the worst, either, he cried.
human
It's not enough that you should tell me to my face that somebody else is your real husband, but you must shunt your spurious offspring into my house. Isn't that what it all comes to . . . all this damnable fuss of your father's . . . that you are going to palm off on me and my name and family your own and this man's . . . bastard?