“Gulian, I cannot.”
“Cannot!” he angrily repeated. “Why can’t you? Have you not heard what I said. You are not my sister, you are my wife. Come.”
“Gulian! You do not know what you ask!”
“I know perfectly well. If you hesitate it is because you do not believe me. But would I urge you if that malignity were true? Would I?”
“Gulian, no, you would not.”
“There! You see! You have to believe me.”
“It is not that.”
“It is the divorce then! But you are no more married to that dismal cad than I am to one of your maids. Except in Nevada the decree has no effect whatever. But without bothering to have it set aside, come with me and let this saurian get another.”
“Gulian, yes, but for the moment surely you can see that this is impossible.”
“Impossible! There is nothing impossible. Why do you say so? Why do you make so many objections? You should not make any. You hear a cock-and-bull story, take it for gospel, run away, get a divorce, marry a damned scoundrel and, when you find the story is a brutal lie, stick like a leech to him.”