"Of course, Katherine, this all sounds as mad as a March hare, and it's August, you know. Why, we couldn't get free if we wanted to, we're too decent."
"But you're not happy, Jim."
"Well, who is, all the time?"
"And, Jim, you do your best work when you are leaving me horribly alone. I've noticed." This was another hideous truth and it stung.
"I've done my best, Kit," he said lamely.
"And it hasn't worked, Jim. I will not stand in your way. Though I die, I will do my duty, now I seek!"
"Don't, Kit, for heaven's sake, don't."
"I mean every word that I say. I will not submit longer to being—being eliminated. I must have reality of some kind. Jim, you don't fit into home life. Our baby died. You can forget me, and I have had to forget you. I want my freedom."
For a full moment they stared helplessly over the chasm that for years had been widening without their knowing it. They could not touch each other now, reach as they might.
"I—why—I'm stunned," said Norval.