Remember I heard what that girl was saying last night.
Remember that you hated the thought of depriving me of Uncle Ira's
money so much that your first act was to try to get me to accept
half of it. The quixotic thing is the first that it occurs to you
to do, because you're like that, because you're the straightest,
whitest man I've ever known or shall know. Could anything be more
likely, looking at it as I should later on, than that you should
have hit on the idea of marrying me as the only way of undoing the
wrong you thought you had done me? I've been foolish about
obligations all my life. I've a sort of morbid pride that hates
the thought of owing anything to anybody, of getting anything that
I have not earned. By and by, if I were to marry you, a little
rotten speck of doubt would begin to eat its way farther and
farther into me. It would be the same with you. We should react on
each other. We should be watching each other, testing each other,
trying each other out all the time. It would be horrible,
horrible!'
He started to speak; then, borne down by the hopelessness of it,
stopped. Elizabeth stood up. They did not look at each other. He
strapped the suitcase and picked it up. The end of all things was
at hand.
'Better to end it all cleanly, Bill,' she said, in a low voice.
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