"I wasn't afraid. I knew it was the best thing you could do."
"The best thing I could do? To marry Gertrude?"
"My dear—it would be far, far better than marrying me."
"But I don't want," said he, "to marry Gertrude."
"Of course, she doesn't want to marry you."
"I never supposed for a moment that she did."
"All the same, I thought it was going to happen."
"If it was going to happen," he said, "it would have happened long ago."
She insisted. "It would have been nicer for you, dear, if it had."
"And when I'd met you afterwards—you think that would have been nicer—for all three of us?"