“There is, no doubt, a man,” put in Sarelli.

Herr Paul muttered:  “Who knows?”

“What is B—–­going to do?” said Dawney.

“Ah!” said Herr Paul.  “He is fond of her.  He is a chap of resolution, he will get her back.  He told me:  ’Well, you know, I shall follow her wherever she goes till she comes back.’  He will do it, he is a determined chap; he will follow her wherever she goes.”

Mr. Treffry drank his wine off at a gulp, and sucked his moustache in sharply.

“She was a fool to marry him,” said Dawney; “they haven’t a point in common; she hates him like poison, and she’s the better of the two.  But it doesn’t pay a woman to run off like that.  B—–­had better hurry up, though.  What do you think, sir?” he said to Mr. Treffry.

“Eh?” said Mr. Treffry; “how should I know?  Ask Paul there, he’s one of your moral men, or Count Sarelli.”

The latter said impassively:  “If I cared for her I should very likely kill her—­if not—­” he shrugged his shoulders.

Harz, who was watching, was reminded of his other words at dinner, “wild beasts whom I would tear to pieces.”  He looked with interest at this quiet man who said these extremely ferocious things, and thought:  ’I should like to paint that fellow.’

Herr Paul twirled his wine-glass in his fingers.  “There are family ties,” he said, “there is society, there is decency; a wife should be with her husband.  B—–­will do quite right.  He must go after her; she will not perhaps come back at first; he will follow her; she will begin to think, ‘I am helpless—­I am ridiculous!’ A woman is soon beaten.  They will return.  She is once more with her husband—­Society will forgive, it will be all right.”

“By Jove, Paul,” growled Mr. Treffry, “wonderful power of argument!”

“A wife is a wife,” pursued Herr Paul; “a man has a right to her society.”

“What do you say to that, sir?” asked Dawney.

Mr. Treffry tugged at his beard:  “Make a woman live with you, if she don’t want to?  I call it low.”

“But, my dear,” exclaimed Herr Paul, “how should you know?  You have not been married.”

“No, thank the Lord!” Mr. Treffry replied.

“But looking at the question broadly, sir,” said Dawney; “if a husband always lets his wife do as she likes, how would the thing work out?  What becomes of the marriage tie?”

“The marriage tie,” growled Mr. Treffry, “is the biggest thing there is!  But, by Jove, Doctor, I’m a Dutchman if hunting women ever helped the marriage tie!”

“I am not thinking of myself,” Herr Paul cried out, “I think of the community.  There are rights.”

“A decent community never yet asked a man to tread on his self-respect.  If I get my fingers skinned over my marriage, which I undertake at my own risk, what’s the community to do with it?  D’you think I’m going to whine to it to put the plaster on?  As to rights, it’d be a deuced sight better for us all if there wasn’t such a fuss about ’em.  Leave that to women!  I don’t give a tinker’s damn for men who talk about their rights in such matters.”