Chapter 4 - Page 2

debauchery, and that real debauchery consists in freedom from the moral
bonds toward a woman with whom one enters into carnal relations, and I
regarded THIS FREEDOM as a merit. I remember that I once tortured myself
exceedingly for having forgotten to pay a woman who probably had given
herself to me through love. I only became tranquil again when, having
sent her the money, I had thus shown her that I did not consider myself
as in any way bound to her. Oh, do not shake your head as if you were
in agreement with me (he cried suddenly with vehemence). I know these
tricks. All of you, and you especially, if you are not a rare exception,
have the same ideas that I had then. If you are in agreement with me, it
is now only. Formerly you did not think so. No more did I; and, if I had
been told what I have just told you, that which has happened would not
have happened. However, it is all the same. Excuse me (he continued):
the truth is that it is frightful, frightful, frightful, this abyss
of errors and debaucheries in which we live face to face with the real
question of the rights of woman." . . .

"What do you mean by the 'real' question of the rights of woman?"

"The question of the nature of this special being, organized otherwise
than man, and how this being and man ought to view the wife. . . ."