"I'm going with Bobby because he needs me. But even if he didn't need me, I should go. I will not sit by and see you destroy yourself."
"Yes. I can imagine that to hear of the process from a distance would be more agreeable."
"I've tried with all my might to help you. You've only laughed at me. It amused you to deceive me. I was no help to you. If I did help you in any way, it was to ruin yourself."
"Strong words, my love. So you consider me a ruin?"
"Almost."
Her lips quivered. She closed them firmly. For his own good she was not going to let that haggard face move her unduly.
"Mh. I see. Well, though I do not seem to appeal to your compassion, I trust that I do to your sense of the picturesque. Ruins are supposed to be romantic. However, a human ruin hasn't the same value in the landscape as an architectural one. Human ruins are generally put under ground, not on top of it. I dare say the Cecil Chesney ruin will be thus disposed of. Shall you return for the ceremony, or have you decided to live permanently in Italy?"
Sophy looked at him with a sort of impassioned hardness.
"I will come back when you are cured—when you have gone of your own accord to a place where they can cure you. Until then—I will never come back."
He looked at her, hiding his real shock under a harsh sarcasm.