“You didn't threaten to kill yourself.”
“No; if I had, I'd have carried out my threat. But for months I endured a living death—or worse.”
“Really? Did you, though?”
Eager inquiry and sudden elation were expressed in this speech.
“Of course I did. Why do you ask in that way?”
“Oh—you took me by surprise. Why did you never tell me it affected you so? I thought—I thought—”
“What did you think?”
“That if you really cared for me you would have—tried again.”
“What? Then I was fatally ignorant! I thought that when you said a thing, you meant it.”
“I didn't know what I meant until it was too late.”