No, Christopher! Don't talk that way! I musn't listen to such talk, the dear Lord knows!—August, he's been through a lot!—His sickness an' his misfortunes—that goes right to a person's soul …
FLAMM
A man can never understand you women folks. You're an intelligent and determined girl, and suddenly, on one point, your stupidity is simply astonishing—goose-like, silly! It goes straight to your soul, does it? From that point of view you might as well marry an ex-convict, if pity or stupidity are reasons. You ought to raise a bit of a row with your father for once! What's hurting August? He grew up in the orphan house and succeeded in making his way for all that. If you won't have him, his brethren in the Lord will find him another. They're expert enough at that!
ROSE
[With decision.] No, that won't do. And—it has got to be, Mr. Flamm.—I'm not sorry for what's happened, though I've had my share o' sufferin' in quiet. All to myself, I mean. But never mind. An' nothin' can change that now. But it's got to come to an end some day—it can't never an' never go on this way.
FLAMM
Can't go on? What do you mean by that exactly?
ROSE
Just … because things is no different in this world. I can't put him off no longer; an' father wouldn't bear with it. An' he's quite right in that matter. Dear Lord ha' mercy! 'Tis no easier on that account! But when it'll all be off a body's soul … I don't know—[She touches her breast.] they calls it, I believe, strain o' the heart, Oh, times are when I has real pains in my heart … An' a person can't feel that way all the time.