"And so the story ends happily, as it should. Everything has come out right."
"No! Everything has not come out right!"
"You mustn't say that. You mustn't think—"
"Esther!" It was hard to meet her eyes then. "I've got to say it—to let you see the sort of man I am. Last night I was thinking of—of what has happened to us and what we would do. There seemed only one way out that I could bear. I made up my mind. I was going to you to tell you that I would get free—I would have managed that somehow—and then come to you. I could have done it—last night."
The smile faded. She waited for him to continue.
"But Smith stopped me. I am glad he stopped me. For now—" He could not go on.
"Now you can't. Is that it?"
"I can't."
"I am glad you can't."
She said it very quietly. Her eyes left his and turned to the sunny window. But the light that shone on the thin tired face came not from without.