Prometheus goes upstairs, indignant, to talk to his wife. He doesn't tell her anything about his friend, or the community's criticisms, but he describes all over again what a boon fire would be to mankind. After an hour of this he has reassured himself, and forgotten his friend. His eyes shine. He looks almost handsome. His wife is quite thrilled. She says he is wonderful, and no one ever had such a husband.
But she says it sounds awfully dangerous.
"Well," he owns, "there's _some_ risk, but we ought to look at it impersonally."
She says: "Looking at it quite impersonally, I think you had better not do it."
"_What?_" he shouts; "don't you realize what a tremendous help fire would--"
"Oh _yes_, dear," she says: "the plan's _perfect_. But _you_ shouldn't go. You have such important work to attend to, here at home, without that. Some younger, less valuable person--"
"Ah, my dear," Prometheus laughs, "you're like every one else. You want to see the world helped, and wars won, whatever the cost; but you don't want either me or you to pay any part of the price. You think all dangerous work should be done by some other woman's husband."
Mrs. Prometheus purses her lips and her face becomes obstinate. "I don't think _any_ married man has a right to take such risks," she observes.
"Well, you ought to hear what the single men say about that," he retorts. "It's pretty thick to expect _them_ to die, they say, for other men's wives."
Mrs. Prometheus shrugs at the shallowness of those silly bachelors, and doesn't bother even to comment on their point of view. Instead, she says tactfully that she sees Prometheus has set his heart upon going, and she wants him to feel perfectly free to do just what he likes. Only there are certain practical matters that one must consider. There's the mortgage, and the laundress--unless he'd like to have her do the washing herself, which she'd be glad to do only he never took those stones out of her way, in the brook--and there's the bill for that last set of bear-skins that she got for the windows; and she doesn't see exactly how she can keep the home up by herself, if he is to wander around neglecting his real-estate business.
He says he won't be chained by his business.