d the
husband's always kind and grateful to his wife. He does all he can to
make things easy for her, and she does all she can to torture him.

STRANGER. That's not true. Of course it may sometimes appear to be so.
I once had a woman friend who shifted all the defects that she had on to
me. For instance, she was very much in love with herself, and therefore
called me the most egoistical of men. She drank, and called me a
drunkard; she rarely changed her linen and said I was dirty; she
was jealous, even of my men friends, and called me Othello. She was
masterful and called me Nero. Niggardly and called me Harpagon.

TEMPTER. Why didn't you answer her?

STRANGER. You know why very well! If I'd made clear to her what she
really was, I'd have lost her favour that moment--and it was precisely
her favour I wanted to keep.

TEMPTER. _A tout prix_! Yes, that's the source of degradation! You grow
accustomed to holding your tongue, and at last find yourself caught in a
tissue of falsehoods.

STRANGER. Wait! Don't you agree that married people so mix their
personalities that they can no longer distinguish between meum and tuum,
no longer remain separate from one another, or cannot tell their own
weaknesses from those of the other. My jealous friend, who called me
Othello, took me for herself, identified me with herself.

TEMPTER. That sounds conceivable.

STRANGER. You see! You can often explain most if you don't ask who's
to blame. For when married people begin to differ, it's like a realm
divided against itself, and that's the worst kind of disharmony.

TEMPTER. There are moments when I think a woman cannot love a man.

STRANGER. Perhaps not. To love is an active verb and woman's a passive
noun. He loves and she is loved; he asks questions and she merely
answers.

TEMPTER. Then what is woman's love?

STRANGER. The man's.

TEMPTER. Well said. And therefore when the man ceases to love her, she
severs herself from him!

STRANGER. And then?

TEMPTER. 'Sh! Someone's coming. Perhaps to take the house!

STRANGER. A woman or a man?

TEMPTER. A woman! And a man. But he's waiting outside. Now he's turned
and is going into the wood. Interesting!

STRANGER. Who is it?

TEMPTER. You can see for yourself.

STRANGER (looking out of the window). It's she! My first wife! My first
love!

TEMPTER. It seems she's left her second husband recently... and arrived
here with number three; who, if one can judge by certain movem