“Don't, Ruth! Forget those dreadful times, as I told you then! Think only of a happy future!”
“Let me finish,” said the Girl. “Let me get this out of my system with the other poison. From the day I came here, I've whispered in my heart, 'I am not free!' But if you love another woman! If you are going to take her to your heart and to your lips, why that is my release. Oh Man, speak the words! Tell me I am free indeed!”
“Ruth, be quiet, for mercy sake! You'll raise a temperature, and the Harvester will pitch me into the lake. You are free, child, of course! You always have been. I understood the awful pressure that was on you with the very first glimpse I had of your mother. Who was she, Ruth?”
“She never would tell me.”
“She thought you would appeal to her people?”
“She knew I would! I couldn't have helped it.”
“Would you like to know?”
“I never want to. It is too late. I infinitely prefer to remain in ignorance. Talk of something else.”
“Let me read a wonderful book I found on the Harvester's shelves.”
“Anything there will contain wonders, because he only buys what appeals to him, and it takes a great book to do that. I am going to learn. He will teach me, and when I come within comprehending distance of him, then we are going on together.”