"What? You think I'm brute enough to take everything you've given me, and to—to let you go like this?"
His hands moved as if they would have taken hers and held them. Then he drew back.
"There's one thing I can't do for you, Kitty. I can't marry you, because it wouldn't be fair to my children."
"I know, Robert, I know."
"I know you know. I told you nothing would ever make any difference. If it weren't for them I'd ask you to marry me to-morrow. I'm only giving you up as you're giving me up, because of them. But if I can't marry you, I want you to let me make things a little less hard for you."
"How?"
"Well, for one thing, I don't believe you've anything to live on."
"What makes you think that?"
"Marston told me that if you married you forfeited your income. I suppose that meant that you had nothing of your own."
"It did."