"Then stay. You know well that you are at home here. We shall go away to-morrow morning."
She rose up in spite of him, and said in a hard tone:
"No. It is too late. I do not want sacrifice; I do not want devotion."
"Stay! I have done what I ought to do; I have said what I ought to say. I have no further responsibility on your behalf. My conscience is at peace. Tell me what you want me to do, and I will obey."
She resumed her seat, looked at him for a long time, and then asked, in a very calm voice:
"Explain, then."
"How is that? What do you wish me to explain?"
"Everything—everything that you have thought about before coming to this resolution. Then I will see what I ought to do."
"But I have thought about nothing at all. I ought to warn you that you are going to accomplish an act of folly. You persist; then I ask to share in this act of folly, and I even insist on it."
"It is not natural to change one's opinion so quickly."