JOHN. I'd be careful what I said. Don't try to make excuses. I understand.
LAURA. It's not excuses. I want to tell you what's in my heart, but I can't; it won't speak, and you don't believe my voice.
JOHN. You'd better leave it unsaid.
LAURA. But I must tell. I can't let you go like this. [She goes over to him and makes a weak attempt to put her arms around him. He takes her arms and puts them back to her side.] I love you. I—how can I tell you—but I do, I do, and you won't believe me.
He remains silent for a moment and then takes her by the hand, leads her over to the chair and places her in it.
JOHN. I think you do as far as you are able; but, Laura, I guess you don't know what a decent sentiment is. [He gathers himself together. His tone is very gentle and very firm, but it carries a tremendous conviction, even with his grief ringing through his speech.] Laura, you're not immoral, you're just unmoral, kind o' all out of shape, and I'm afraid there isn't a particle of hope for you. When we met neither of us had any reason to be proud, but I thought that you thought that it was the chance of salvation which sometimes comes to a man and a woman fixed as we were then. What had been had been. It was all in the great to-be for us, and now, how you've kept your word! What little that promise meant, when I thought you handed me a new lease of life!
LAURA. [In a voice that is changed and metallic. She is literally being nailed to the cross.] You're killing me—killing me.
JOHN. Don't make such a mistake. In a month you'll recover. There will be days when you will think of me, just for a moment, and then it will be all over. With you it is the easy way, and it always will be. You'll go on and on until you're finally left a wreck, just the type of the common woman. And you'll sink until you're down to the very bed-rock of depravity. I pity you.
LAURA. [Still in the same metallic tone of voice.] You'll never leave me to do that. I'll kill myself.
JOHN. Perhaps that's the only thing left for you to do, but you'll not do it. It's easier to live. [Crosses, gets hat and coat, turns and looks at her, LAURA rising at the same time.