Anne did not move. She did not even turn her eyes from the angry violet eyes opposite.
"I'll do a little 'crushing under the heel of capitalism' myself, before my heel gets too old and shriveled and ugly to be hired for the job." The bitterness of Merle's voice cut.
"Don't, Merle. I mean don't talk like that, please. If—if you have left Tom because you want to—don't—don't make it any worse."
"But, Anne, it's true," Merle spoke more quietly now, and quickly, as if the things she had to say must be said instantly, once for all. "I do want money, because money is the only way to get the things I want, to get my kind of Beauty. To Tom it may be beauty to be always dodging jail, to live in the kind of rooms we have lived in, to yell himself hoarse four nights a week about Russia or India or longshoremen, anything that's far enough from him. But it's not to me. When there's a play in town I want to see it, and I want decent clothes to go in and a fairly decent seat, and I'm not waiting for any old 'adjustment' to give it to me. I'm going to take it while it's going. Why, Anne, when I first went to Tom, I used to wake in the night, afraid the 'Revolution' would hit us before morning, and that's five years ago and we're still dashing after its tail. Katya, poor old thing, has been kicking at the world for fifteen years, until she couldn't stop if she tried. And when they get it all done, how do I know it'll be any better? People will only be kicking about something else then. No, I'll take my million dollars now and hang on to it."
"But you loved Tom. You can't——"
"Y-e-s—I loved him. And what did I get for it? Not in money. I—I'm not that bad, Anne, but Tom doesn't know half the time whether I'm alive or not."
"That can't be true, Merle. He's always busy——"
"Oh, shucks, Anne, you can't tell me anything about Tom. I know he's busy. Doing what? Saving the world; wearing himself to skin and bones for millions of people he has never seen. But if all these 'oppressed' were there in one single soul he had to see and touch and be with all the time and do little loving things for, he'd hate them. Bah! they make me sick. They're all the same. They're monomaniacs. It's the fighting they like. If they had it all fixed to-night they'd mess it up again just for fun, or go insane because they had nothing to do. I know. I've been through it. You're only just beginning. Wait and see. Roger's the same stuff, floating 'round in the clouds with those blue eyes and that square chin. It'll get him too, Anne, if you don't watch out."
Anne's lips set tightly. "You're hurt and mad, Merle. You——"
Merle laughed. "All right, call it that. It's been a long time coming, but it's come to stay. I'm going to Europe, Anne."