"My Peggy!"
"Yes, your Peggy. It's the same thing. You'll see it some day. But I want you to see it now, before it's too late."
"Edie, if you'd only tell me where I've failed! If you're thinking of our—our separation—"
"I was not. But, since you have mentioned it, I can't help reminding you that you fell in love with Walter because you thought he was a saint. And so I don't see what's to prevent you now. He's qualifying. He mayn't be perfect; but, in some ways, a saint couldn't very well do more. Has it never occurred to that you are indulging the virtue that comes easiest to you, and exacting from him the virtue that comes hardest? And he has stood the test."
"It was his own doing—his own wish."
"Is it? I doubt it—when he's more in love with you than he was before he married you."
"That's all over."
"For you. Not for him. He's a man, as you may say, of obstinate affections."
"Ah, Edie—you don't know."
"I know," said Edith, "you're perfectly sweet, the way you take my scoldings. It's cowardly of me, when I'm lying here safe, and you can't scold back again. But I wouldn't do it if I didn't love you."