"Where have you been?" she asked sharply.
"That's my business," he replied.
"To be married and have no husband is anything but pleasant," she
rejoined. "If we had a child, at least!"
"It isn't my fault that we haven't!"
"It isn't mine!"
A quarrel arose as to whose fault it was, and the quarrel lasted for
two years.
As both of them were too obstinate to take medical advice, the usual
thing happened. The husband cut a ridiculous figure, and the wife a
tragic one. He was told that a childless woman was sacred because, for
some reason or other, "God's" curse rested on her. That "God" could
also stoop to curse a man was beyond the women's comprehension.
But Frithiof had no doubt that a curse rested on him for his life was
dreary and unhealthy. Nature has created two sexes, which are now
friends, now enemies. He had met the enemy, an overwhelming enemy.
"What is a capon?" he was asked by one of his sisters one day. She was
busy with her needlework and asked the question a propos of nothing.
He looked at her suspiciously. No, she did not know the meaning of the
word; she had probably listened to a conversation and her curiosity
was aroused.
But the iron had entered his soul. He was being laughed at.
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