She started, clasped and unclasped her hands.
"You are only tempting us," she said. "It may look for a moment like a possible thing—it isn't."
"It is perfectly possible if we are not superstitious. The new claim brings a new insight, a new wisdom."
She shivered.
"Think of founding a new existence on broken faith, on cowardice."
"You know you are talking sheer superstition."
She seemed not to hear.
"Do you realize," he went on, "that many people, enlightened enough to admit we have a right to do as we like with ourselves, would deny we had a right to deprive another—"
"You talk as if you didn't know a girl 'deprives' a whole possible family of life every time she says 'No' to a man who asks her to marry him. No use to talk to me, I'm a hardened criminal."
She made a nervous, mocking motion to get up and cut the colloquy short. Ethan stopped her with a gesture of grave rebuke.