"You mean you won't want me?"
"No. I shall not want you. Because, when I did want you it broke down."
He smiled.
"I see. When you want me, it breaks down."
He rallied for a moment. He made his one last pitiful stand against the supernatural thing that was conquering him.
He had risen to go.
"And when I want to come, when I long for you, what then?"
"Your longing will make no difference."
She smiled also, as if she foresaw how it would work, and that soon, very soon, he would cease to long for her.
His hand was on the door. He smiled back at her.