This being more than Junia had hoped for, she tried to use the opening to the best of her ability.
"They—they do something that—that makes the other person want to be free." Trying to explain this further, she ran the risk of citing a case perhaps too close to the point. "For instance, if my husband wanted to be free, he'd do something that would make me willing to divorce him."
"And would you?"
"You see, I'm taking the case of his wanting to be free. In that situation, he's the one who would do the thing. If I wanted to be free, I suppose—I suppose I should do it."
"So that if I wanted to be free, it would be up to me to do the thing rather than up to Bob."
A moral issue being here at stake, Junia was obliged, in the expressive American phrase, "to sidestep," though she supposed that the suggestion in the air was of no more than Jennie had done already. As an artist's model, it would be part of her professional occupation.
"I'm not giving you advice, my dear; I'm only trying to answer your question. I'm so sorry for you that I'd do anything I could to help you unravel the tangle."
"Then you think there are ways of unraveling it?"
"Oh, certainly, if you were willing to—"
"To what, Mrs. Collingham. There's almost nothing I wouldn't do—to get us all out—when you've been so kind to me."