And then the break was over; the annual freezing-up was accomplished, winter had established itself, the snowfall moderated and ceased, and an ice-bound world shone white and sunlit under a cloudless sky.
§ 3
Through all that time they got no further with the great discussion for which they had faced that solitude. They attempted beginnings.
"Where had we got to when we left England?" cried Marjorie. "You couldn't work, you couldn't rest—you hated our life."
"Yes, I know. I had a violent hatred of the lives we were leading. I thought—we had to get away. To think.... But things don't leave us alone here."
He covered his face with his hands.
"Why did we come here?" he asked.
"You wanted—to get out of things."
"Yes. But with you.... Have we, after all, got out of things at all? I said coming up, perhaps we were leaving our own problem behind. In exchange for other problems—old problems men have had before. We've got nearer necessity; that's all. Things press on us just as much. There's nothing more fundamental in wild nature, nothing profounder—only something earlier. One doesn't get out of life by going here or there.... But I wanted to get you away—from all things that had such a hold on you....
"When one lies awake at nights, then one seems to get down into things...."