While he spoke he was walking up and down the little room, never looking at her. Her eyes followed him, but her heart fell within her. He finished and faced her. She could scarcely answer him.
‘You mean that you must go away . . . leave me?’
‘That’s the ticket,’ he said. ‘I ought to have done it afore. If I had they’d have left you alone.’
‘But you can’t,’ she said. ‘You can’t!’
‘You can’t live on nothing,’ he said brutally.
She could not listen to reason. She was beyond reason now.
‘No, no,’ she cried. ‘Abner, you mustn’t go!’
He set his will against her. She stood and trembled before him, but he would not face her for fear that he should be softened. He kept silence.
‘You can’t,’ she cried again. ‘I couldn’t face it . . . the loneliness! I couldn’t, really! This place . . . all alone. No, Abner, you can’t!’
‘It’s not for so long,’ he reassured her. ‘What’s four month? After that you’ll have George back again.’