Phineas Finn: The Irish Member

by Anthony Trollope

"Fool! Idiot! That I should not be able to crush it into nothing and have done with it! Why should he not have her? After all, he is better than Oswald. Oh,—is that you?" The door of the room had been opened while she was standing thus, and her husband had entered. "Yes,—it is I. Is anything wrong?" "Very much is wrong." "What is it, Laura?" "You cannot help me." "If you are in trouble you should tell me what it is, and leave it to me to try to help you." "Nonsense!" she said, shaking her head. "Laura, that is uncourteous,—not to say undutiful also." "I suppose it was,—both. I beg your pardon, but I could not help it." "Laura, you should help such words to me." "There are moments, Robert, when even a married woman must be herself rather than her husband's wife. It is so, though you cannot understand it." "I certainly do not understand it." "You cannot make a woman subject to you as a dog is so. You may have all the outside and as much of the inside as you can master. With a dog you may be sure of both."