“You will never ask me.”
“But if I did?”
“Oh, God knows!”
“If I not only asked but implored? Give me this hope, this promise. If I come to the end of my tether, can bear no more; then ask you for release, the great release...?”
“My hand would drop off.”
“Lose your hand.”
“My heart would fail.”
“Other men have done such things for the woman they love.”
“It won’t come to that.”
“But if it did...?”