He came back to her in a few moments. "I tell you we ought to be taught—we ought to be taught, when we are young, what marriage really means, just as we are taught not to steal, nor lie, nor sin. In, marriage we do all three—when we're ill-mated. We steal affection from some one else, we lie in our lives and we sin in our relationship."
Ethel asked him very quietly:
"Do you mean that you are a sinner, a thief, and a liar?"
Brent looked at her in horror.
"Oh, take some of the blame," said Ethel; "don't put it all on the woman."
"You've never spoken to me like this before."
"I've often wanted to," replied Ethel. Then she asked him: "What do you intend doing?"
"Separate," he answered, eagerly. "You don't doctor a poisoned limb when your life depends on it; you cut it off. When two lives generate a deadly poison, face the problem as a surgeon would. Amputate."
"And after the operation? What then?" asked Ethel.
"That is why I am here facing you. Do you understand what I mean?"