This method also proved to be dubious: the bass player (the oldest man in the group) pointed out that it was even more naive to count on the young woman's good sense than to rely on her compassion. The logic of the argument would be wide of the mark, while the young woman's heart would be shattered by her beloved's refusal to believe her. This would incite her, with tearful determination, to persist still more obstinately in her assertions and her schemes.
There remained the third method: Klima could swear to the expectant mother that he had loved her once and loved her still. He should not make the slightest allusion to the chance that it was another man's child. On the contrary, Klima would bathe her in trust, tenderness, and love. He would promise her everything, including a divorce from his wife. He would
depict their marvelous future together. And in behalf of that future he would then urge her to terminate the pregnancy. He would explain that this was not yet the time to have a child, that its birth would deprive them of the first, most beautiful years of their love.
This line of argument lacked what the preceding ones had in abundance: logic. How could Klima be so smitten with the nurse if he had been avoiding her for two months? But the bass player maintained that lovers always behaved illogically and that there was nothing simpler than explaining this, one way or another, to the young woman. Eventually they all agreed that the third method was probably the most satisfactory, for it would appeal to the young woman's love for him, the only relative certainty in the situation.