Charming and pleasant as all this sounded, and deep (Charlotte felt it
to her soul) as was the moral significance which lay below it,
expressions of this kind, on Ottilie's account, were most distasteful to
her. She knew very well that nothing was more dangerous than the
licentious conversation which treats culpable or semi-culpable actions
as if they were common, ordinary, and even laudable, and of such
undesirable kind assuredly were all which touched on the sacredness of
marriage. She endeavored, therefore, in her skilful way, to give the
conversation another turn, and, when she found that she could not, it
vexed her that Ottilie had managed everything so well that there was no
occasion for her to leave the table. In her quiet observant way a nod or
a look was enough for her to signify to the head servant whatever was to
be done, and everything went off perfectly, although there were a couple
of strange men in livery in the way who were rather a trouble than a
convenience. And so the Count, without feeling Charlotte's hints, went
on giving his opinions on the same subject. Generally, he was little
enough apt to be tedious in conversation; but this was a thing which
weighed so heavily on his heart, and the difficulties which he found in
getting separated from his wife were so great that it had made him
bitter against everything which concerned the marriage bond--that very
bond which, notwithstanding, he was so anxiously desiring between
himself and the Baroness.

"The same friend," he went on, "has another law which he proposes. A
marriage shall be held indissoluble only when either both parties, or at
least one or the other, enter into it for the third time. Such persons
must be supposed to acknowledge beyond a doubt that they find marriage
indispensable for themselves; they have had opportunities of thoroughly
knowing themselves; of knowing how they conducted themselves in their
earlier unions; whether they have any peculiarities of temper, which are