(irritably)--You will agree at least, madame, that they are
not very amiable to you.
WIFE B. (with vivacity)--Who told you so?
HUSBAND A. (smiling)--Don't they overwhelm you all the time with their
superiority? Vanity so dominates their souls that between you and them
the effort is reciprocal--
THE MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE. (aside to Wife A)--You well deserved it, my
dear. (Wife A shrugs her shoulders.)
HUSBAND A. (still continuing)--Then the habit they have of combining
ideas which reveal to them the mechanism of feeling! For them love is
purely physical and every one knows that they do not shine.
WIFE B. (biting her lips, interrupting him)--It seems to me, sir, that
we are the sole judges in this matter. I can well understand why men
of the world do not like men of letters! But it is easier to criticise
than to imitate them.
HUSBAND A. (disdainfully)--Oh, madame, men of the world can assail the
authors of the present time without being accused of envy. There is
many a gentleman of the drawing-room, who if he undertook to write--
WIFE B. (with warmth)--Unfortunately for you, sir, certain friends of
yours in the Chamber have written romances; have you been able to read
them?--But really, in these days, in order to attain the least
originality, you must undertake historic research, you must--
HUSBAND B.
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