Blanche. I tell you truly my love for you is gone for good.
Sterling. I'll win it back—you did love me, you did, didn't you, Blanche?
Blanche.. I loved the man I thought you were. Do you remember that day in the mountains when we first really came to know each other, when we walked many, many miles without dreaming of being tired?
Sterling. And found ourselves at sunset at the top instead of below, by our hotel! Oh, yes, I remember! The world changed for me that day.
[He sinks back into the arm-chair, overcome, in his weakened state, by his memories and his realization of what he has made of the present.
Blanche. And for me! I knew then for the first time you loved me, and that I loved you. Oh! how short life of a sudden seemed! Not half long enough for the happiness it held for me! [She turns upon him with a vivid change of feeling.] Has it turned out so?
Sterling. How different! Oh, what a beast! what a fool!
Blanche. [Speaking with pathetic emotion, tears in her throat and in her eyes.] And that early summer's day you asked me to be your wife! [She gives a little exclamation, half a sob, half a laugh.] It was in the corner of the garden; I can smell the lilacs now! And the raindrops fell from the branches as my happy tears did on father's shoulder that night, when I said, "Father, he will make me the happiest woman in the world!"
Sterling. O God! to have your love back!
Blanche. You can't breathe life back into a dead thing; how different the world would be if one could!