You must. Whether you may or not—I don't care! In fact I don't give a tinker's damn! If this thing is really decreed in the council of God, as the song has it—I want a dismissal in all due form: I refuse to be just coolly shunted off.—Rose, is there anything in the past for which I need to ask your forgiveness?

ROSE

[Touched, shakes her head with energy.] Nothin', nothin' at all, Mr. Flamm.

FLAMM

No? Is that honest? [ROSE nods a hearty affirmation.] Well, I'm glad of that, at least! I hoped it would be so. Then at least we can keep something that's harmonious in our memories. Ah, Rose, it was a good, good time….

ROSE

An' you must go back to your wife….

FLAMM

A good time! And it rushes past … past! And what do we keep of it?

ROSE