“He’s a fool.”
“Then you could profit by losing your wits,” she said, sharply. “Suppose we omit Potter Waite from our talk. It gets us nowhere.”
“If you’ll omit him from your thoughts—”
“If only I could.”
“You sent for me,” he said, after a pause. “Why?”
“Because I’m tired of being shut up in a cage.”
“Suppose I refuse to take you out of it—without something more definite in the way of promises?”
“Then I’ll stay shut up.... You may as well understand me one time as another. If I marry you I’ll marry you when I’m ready, and not until I’m ready. I don’t want to marry you. I don’t want to marry anybody.... But there are limits to what one can endure. To marry you might be more endurable than not to marry you.... I’ve seen enough of life to realize that. I couldn’t have realized it a year ago. I’m talking frankly to you, Mr. Cantor.”
“I agree with you,” he said, ironically.
“You seem to think I am desirable as a wife. But you don’t love me. You have your reasons for wanting me.”