I had grown to disbelieve impartially in all; and if in the atlas of the sciences there were two charts I disbelieved in more than all the rest, they were politics and morals. I had a sneaking kindness for your vices; as they were negative, they flattered my philosophy; and I called them almost virtues. Well, Otto, I was wrong; I have forsworn my sceptical philosophy; and I perceive your faults to be unpardonable. You are unfit to be a Prince, unfit to be a husband. And I give you my word, I would rather see a man capably doing evil than blundering about good.'
Otto was still silent, in extreme dudgeon.
Presently the Doctor resumed: `I will take the smaller matter first: your conduct to your wife. You went, I hear, and had an explanation.
That may have been right or wrong; I know not; at least, you had stirred her temper. At the council she insults you; well, you insult her back -- a man to a woman, a husband to his wife, in public! Next upon the back of this, you propose -- the story runs like wildfire -- to recall the power of signature. Can she ever forgive that? a woman -- a young woman -- ambitious, conscious of talents beyond yours? Never, Otto. And to sum all, at such a crisis in your married life, you get into a window corner with that ogling dame von Rosen. I do not dream that there was any harm; but I do say it was an idle disrespect to your wife. Why, man, the woman is not decent.'
`Gotthold,' said Otto, `I will hear no evil of the Countess.'
`You will certainly hear no good of her,' returned Gotthold; `and if you wish your wife to be the pink of nicety, you should clear your court of demi-reputations.'
`The commonplace injustice of a by-word,' Otto cried. `The partiality of ***. She is a demirep; what then is Gondremark? Were she a man -- `
`It would be all one,' retorted Gotthold roughly. `When I see a man, come to years of wisdom, who speaks in double-meanings and is the braggart of his vices, I spit on the other side. "You, my friend," say I, "are not even a gentleman." Well, she's not even a lady.'
`She is the best friend I have, and I choose that she shall be respected,' Otto said.
`If she is your friend, so much the worse,' replied the Doctor.
`It will not stop there.'
`Ah!' cried Otto, `there is the charity of virtue! All evil in the spotted fruit. But I can tell you, sir, that you do Madame von Rosen prodigal injustice.'
`You can tell me!' said the Doctor shrewdly. `Have you, tried? have you been riding the marches?'
The blood came into Otto's face.
`Ah!' cried Gotthold, `look at your wife and blush! There's a wife for a man to marry and then lose! She's a carnation, Otto. The soul is in her eyes.'
`You have changed your note for Seraphina, I perceive,' said Otto.
`Changed it!' cried the Doctor, with a flush. `Why, when was it different? But I own I admired her at the council. When she sat there silent, tapping with her foot, I admired her as I might a hurricane. Were I one of those who venture upon matrimony, there had been the prize to tempt me! She invites, as Mexico invited Cortez; the enterprise is hard, the natives are unfriendly -- I believe them cruel too -- but the metropolis is paved with gold and the breeze blows out of paradise. Yes, I could desire to be that conqueror. But to philander with von Rosen! never! Senses? I discard them; what are they? -- pruritus! Curiosity? Reach me my Anatomy!'
`To whom do you address yourself?' cried Otto. `Surely you, of all men, know that I love my wife!'
`O, love!' cried Gotthold; `love is a great word; it is in all the dictionaries. If you had loved, she would have paid you back. What does she ask? A little ardour!'
`It is hard to love for two,' replied the Prince.
`Hard? Why, there's the touchstone! O, I know my poets!' cried the Doctor. `We are but dust and fire, too and to endure life's scorching; and love, like the shadow of a great rock, should lend shelter and refreshment, not to the lover only, but to his mistress and to the children that reward them; and their very friends should seek repose in the fringes of that peace. Love is not love that cannot build a home. And you call it love to grudge and quarrel and pick faults? You call it love to thwart her to her face, and bandy insults? Love!'
`Gotthold, you are unjust. I was then fighting for my country,' said the Prince.
`Ay, and there's the worst of all,' returned the Doctor. `You could not even see that you were wrong; that being where they were, retreat was ruin.'
Why, you supported me!' cried Otto.