Married Part 44

"Poked my nose into your books? No, but I took it upon me to check your...."

"What business was it of yours?"

"And I found that you keep books without having the slightest knowledge of denominate quant.i.ties or decimal fractions."

"What? You think I don't know?"

"No, you don't! And therefore the foundations of the establishment are shaky. Your book-keeping is all humbug, old girl!"

"My book-keeping concerns no one but myself."

"Incorrect book-keeping is an offence punishable by law; if you are not liable, then I am."

"The law? I care a fig for the law!"

"I daresay! But we shall get into its clutches, if not you, then most certainly I! And therefore I am going to be book-keeper in the future."

"We can engage a man to do it."

"No, that's not necessary! I have nothing else to do."

And that settled the matter.

But once the husband occupied the chair at the desk and the people came to see _him_, the wife lost all interest in farming and cattle-breeding.

A violent reaction set in; she no longer attended to the cows and calves, but remained in the house. There she sat, hatching fresh plots.

But the husband had regained a fresh hold on life. He took an eager interest in the estate and woke up the people. Now he held the reins; managed everything, gave orders and paid the bills.

One day his wife came into the office and asked him for a thousand crowns to buy a piano.

"What are you thinking of?" said the husband. "Just when we are going to re-build the stables! We haven't the means to buy a piano."

"What do you mean?" she replied. "Why haven't we got the means? Isn't my money sufficient?"

"Your money?"

"Yes, my money, my dowry."

"That has now become the property of the family."

"That is to say yours?"

"No, the family's. The family is a small community, the only one which possesses common property which, as a rule, is administered by the husband."

"Why should he administer it and not the wife?"

"Because he has more time to give to it, since he does not bear children."

"Why couldn't they administer it jointly?"

"For the same reason that a joint stock company has only one managing director. If the wife administered as well, the children would claim the same right, for it is their property, too."

"This is mere hair-splitting. I think it's hard that I should have to ask your permission to buy a piano out of my own money."

"It's no longer your money."

"But yours?"

"No, not mine either, but the family's. And you are wrong when you say that you 'have to ask for my permission'; it's merely wise that you should consult with the administrator as to whether the position of affairs warrants your spending such a large sum on a luxury."

"Do you call a piano a luxury?"

"A new piano, when there is an old one, must be termed a luxury. The position of our affairs is anything but satisfactory, and therefore it doesn't permit you to buy a new piano at present, but _I_, personally, can or will have nothing to say against it."

"An expenditure of a thousand crowns doesn't mean ruin."

"To incur a debt of a thousand crowns at the wrong time may be the first step towards ruin."

"All this means that you refuse to buy me a new piano?"

"No, I won't say that. The uncertain position of affairs...."

"When, oh! when will the day dawn on which the wife will manage her own affairs and have no need to go begging to her husband?"

"When she works herself. A man, your father, has earned your money.

The men have gained all the wealth there is in the world; therefore it is but just that a sister should inherit less than her brother, especially as the brother is born with the duty to provide for a woman, while the sister need not provide for a man. Do you understand?"

"And you call that justice? Can you honestly maintain that it is?

Ought we not all to share and share alike?"

"No, not always. One ought to share according to circ.u.mstances and merit. The idler who lies in the gra.s.s and watches the mason building a house, should have a smaller share than the mason."

"Do you mean to insinuate that I am lazy?"

"H'm! I'd rather not say anything about that. But when I used to lie on the sofa, reading, you considered me a loafer, and I well remember that you said something to that effect in very plain language."

"But what am I to do?"

"Take the children out for walks."

"I'm not const.i.tuted to look after the children."

"But there was a time when I had to do it. Let me tell you that a woman who says that she is not const.i.tuted to look after children, isn't a woman. But that fact doesn't make a man of her, by any means.

What is she, then?"

"Shame on you that you should speak like that of the mother of your children!"