CHARLIE. Oh, don't think worse of me than you must. It's not another woman. It never was and it never can be. I shall never love any one but you.
ROSIE. Then why, why?
CHARLIE. My life's too full.
ROSIE (wonderingly). Your life?
CHARLIE. Yes. How shall I put it? (Crossing to soja l.) A Catholic priest doesn't marry lest marriage distract him from his wrestle with the devil. I too am going to wrestle with a devils the devil of industrialism. I've things to do in the world, a battle to fight which can only be fought in the strength of loneliness.
ROSIE (a little hardly). Yet you engaged yourself to me.
CHARLIE. Two years ago. I didn't see it then Day by day it has become clearer. The task I have to do reveals itself. Oh, I dare say I don't put things well. I know I must show up like a blackguard for not telling you before. It's been inevitable for months, but I let things slide and there it is. We're up against it now. (Pause.)
ROSIE. Yes. We're up against it now. Only it takes two to make a bargain, Charlie. If you can be obstinate, so can I.
CHARLIE. What do you mean?
ROSIE. I mean that I know you better than you know yourself and a hundred times better than you know me. You and your Catholic priest! In the Church I belong to priests marry, and I've yet to learn that they fight the devil any the worse for it. I don't believe that the strongest man is he who stands most alone when there's a woman in love with him. You don't know me yet, Charlie. If you think I'd let you go for the sake of your wrestle with the devil, you're mistaken. The devil might throw you if you wrestled him alone, but he'll have less chance if I'm there to pull his tail.