Worse, however, maintained that it was not a question how a man was treated, but what the relation really was which existed between the two.  The time must be drawing to a close when the sole consideration was, what a man found most agreeable, and it was to be hoped that the young men of the future would be ashamed to argue from that basis.  This was plainly a hit, not only at the magistrate, but at all married men of his generation.  Aalbom protested warmly against Worse’s theory, and his wife could be heard ejaculating in the distance.  Pastor Martens now came and joined the disputants.

Jacob Worse was becoming excited; he spoke hurriedly, and his tone showed that he only restrained himself by an effort.  On what absurd principles, he maintained, was the education of women generally conducted!  How many thousands ended their career, worn out by the drudgery of household duties!  Their intellect was wasted, and their strength exhausted for nothing.  It was quite easy to talk so glibly of purity in a state of society where man was to know everything and have a right to everything, while woman was to be debarred from all intellectual knowledge.

At the first pause in the conversation, Aalbom came to the front as woman’s champion, and the magistrate and Martens joined him.  The conversation now waxed warmer, and Delphin wandered off to Madeleine, leaving Worse struggling alone against the arguments which both sides brought to bear on him.  The disputants became heated and excited, and all went on talking at once, without giving time for the others to finish their sentences.

The attache stood with his hands behind his back, regarding with apprehension the storm he had raised, and which was now out of his power to quell.

Mr. Johnsen made several attempts to join in the conversation, which had, however, become so warm that no one could be got to listen to his measured and carefully worded remarks.  Rachel followed the arguments with the greatest interest, but she could not help feeling annoyed.  She was annoyed when the others said anything stupid, and even still more so when she was obliged to confess that Worse was in the right.  Everything seemed to irritate her.  She could not bear to hear these men discussing her and her position as if she were some strange animal, and without ever having the grace to ask her opinion.  The conversation had now gone far beyond woman’s position, although Jacob Worse tried in vain to keep them to the point.  Off they went through recent literature, foreign politics, home politics, ever with increasing earnestness, and with the same division of parties.  Latterly the pastor had come more to the front.  Aalbom’s voice began to fail him, and the magistrate was unable any longer to get beyond the beginning of his sentences, and could do little else than point to his decorations and say, “For God and the King!” And before they knew where they were, they found themselves on the subject of modern scepticism.