"How they have insulted me."
"Who? Who?"
"The blackguards who live down below."
"But, surely not; what does it all mean, tell me?"
She began to sob, without being able to utter a word. He had to take off
her bonnet, undo her dress, lay her on the bed, moisten her forehead
with a wet towel. She was choking, and then when her emotion was
somewhat abated, all her wrathful indignation broke out. She wanted him
to go down at once, to thrash them, to kill them.
He repeated: "But they are only work-people, low creatures. Just
remember that it would lead to a police court, that you might be
recognized, arrested, ruined. One cannot lower one's self to have
anything to do with such people."
She passed on to another idea. "What shall we do now? For my part, I
cannot come here again."