“That is your ruling passion,” he said bluntly, “—work!”
“If we don’t marry, I can have you, and work, too——”
“Do you think me narrow enough, selfish enough, to interfere with your career if you marry me?”
She answered gravely: “I wasn’t afraid of that.... I was afraid of—children—if I marry you ... dearest.”
“But if——” Then the candour of her chaste self-revelation grew clear to him—her exquisite ignorance, her virgin confidence in the heavenly inviolability of love.
“Do you understand, Barry?”
“I think so.”
“You see,” she explained, “unmarried I can go and still have you.... But careers often end when children come.”
“Don’t you ever want them, Eris?”
“Well—as I’ve never had any, isn’t it natural I should prefer you and a career to you and a baby?”