it before. Do you think he has some scheme in his head
about it?

ABEL. Ye-es! Doubtless. He wants to see if you've accounted for the
three hundred francs you got for your picture.

BERTHA. What picture?

ABEL. The one you sold to Madame Roubey.

BERTHA. How do you know about that?

ABEL. The whole crowd knows about it.

BERTHA. And Axel, too?

ABEL. Yes. I happened to mention it because I thought he knew. It was
stupid of you not to tell him.

BERTHA. Does it concern him if I sell a--

ABEL. Yes, in a way, of course it concerns him.

BERTHA. Well, then, I will explain that I didn't want to give him
another disappointment after he had already had the unhappiness of
seeing me accepted at the salon.

ABEL. Strictly speaking, he has nothing to do with your earnings, as you
have a marriage compact, and you have every reason to be tight with him.
Just to establish a precedent, buck up and stand your own ground when he
returns with his lecture tonight.

BERTHA. Oh, I know how to take care of him. But--another matter. How are
we to treat the Oestermark case?

ABEL. Oestermark,--yes, he is my great enemy. You had better let me take
care of him. We have an old account that is still unsettled, he and I.
Calm yourself on that score. I'll make him yield, for we have the law on
our side.

BERTHA. What do you intend to do?

ABEL. Invite Mrs. Hall and her two daughters here for tomorrow night,
and then we will find out how he takes it.

BERTHA. No, indeed, no scandal in my house!

ABEL. Why not? Can you deny yourself such a triumph? If it's war, one
must kill one's enemies, not just wound them. And now it is war. Am I
right?

BERTHA. Yes, but a father, and his wife and daughters whom he has not
seen for eighteen years!

ABEL. Well, he'll have a chance to see them now.

BERTHA. You're terrible, Abel!

ABEL. I'm a little stronger than you, that's all. Marriage must have
softened you. Do you live as married people, h'm?

BERTHA. How foolish you are!

ABEL. You have irritated Axel; you have trampled on him. But he can yet
bite your heel.

BERTHA. Do you think he would dare to do anything?

ABEL. I believe he'll create a scene when he comes home.

BERTHA. Well, I shall give him as good as he sends--

ABEL. If you only can! But that business about the chiffonier key--that
was foolish, very foolish.

BERTHA. Perhaps it was foolish. But he will be nice enough again after
he has had an airing. I know him.