_Ossep. Chacho_. OSSEP. Have you ever seen anything like it, aunt? I ask you, aunt, does that seem right? CHACHO. My son, who takes a thing like that to heart? OSSEP. She is obstinate as a mule. Say, does she not deserve to be soundly beaten, now? CHACHO. It only needed this--that you should say such a thing! As many years as you have lived together you have never harmed a hair of her head; then all of a sudden you begin to talk like this. Is that generous? OSSEP. O aunt! I have had enough of it all. Were another man in my place, he would have had a separation long ago. [_Sits down_.] If she sees on anyone a new dress that pleases her, I must buy one like it for her; if a thing pleases her anywhere in a house, she wants one in her house; and if I don't get it for her she loses her senses. It is, for all the world, as though she belonged to the monkey tribe. Can a man endure it any longer? CHACHO. The women are all so, my son. Why do you fret yourself so much on that account? OSSEP. Yes, yes; you have the habit of making out that all women are alike--all! all! If other people break their heads against a stone, shall I do the same? No; I do what pleases myself, and not what pleases others. CHACHO. Ossep, what nonsense are you talking? As I was coming here, even, I saw a laborer's wife so dressed up that a princess could hardly be compared with her. She had on a lilac silk dress and a splendid shawl on her head, fine, well-fitting gloves, and in her hand she held a satin parasol. I stood staring, open-mouthed, as she passed. Moreover, she trailed behind her a train three yards long. I tell you my heart was sad when I saw how she swept the street with that beautiful dress and dragged along all sorts of rubbish with it. I really do not see why they still have street-sweepers. It was a long time before I could turn my eyes from her, and thought to myself, Lord, one can't tell the high from the low nowadays! And what can one say to the others if a laborer's wife puts on so much style? OSSEP. I said that very thing. I have just spoken of it. A new public official has just arrived. She sees that others want to marry their daughters to him, and she runs, head first, against the wall to get ahead of them. CHACHO. You are really peculiar. You have, you say, not enough money to provide a dowry for your daughter, and yet you brought her up and educated her in the fashion. For what has she learned to play the piano, then? Consider everything carefully.