"Let me stay with you, Marjon. It really seems as if I never again could go away from you."
Marjon looked at him through her tears, and even smiled.
"But, Jo, we cannot do as we used to. We are no longer children. I am already eighteen, and are you not that also?"
"Then let us become husband and wife, so that we can remain together," said Johannes.
"Then you no longer love that other one more than me?"
"I think not, Marjon; for she would understand nothing of this, and certainly would not join us in our sorrow."
"But, dear boy, we are far too young to become husband and wife."
"I do not understand, Marjon. First you find us too old to stay together, and then you find us too young. And yet I want to remain with you. How can it be done?"
"Listen, Jo. Formerly you said to me, 'No foolishness,' and that hurt me for I cared much more for you than you did for me. Why were you never more kind to me then?"
"Because I was forced to remember that ugly, dark woman, your sister. I cannot bear the thought of her."