She had always known that this moment would arrive—always known that she would meet it in some such manner as she was meeting it now.
"Not mine?" Blake said again.
She shook her head, throwing back her shoulders, clasping her hands behind her, unconsciously taking on the attitude of defiance.
"And why not?"
It was curt, this question, as man's vital questions ever are; it was an onslaught that clove to the heart of things.
She trembled for an instant, then met his eyes.
"Because I will belong to no one. I must possess myself."
He stared at her.
"But it is not given to any one to possess himself! How can you separate an atom from the universal mass?"
"An atom may detach itself—"