"How is ours going to end?" she asked with candid curiosity.
"It must be constructed very carefully," he said, "because this is realism."
"You must be very skillful, too," she said. "I do not see how you are to avoid——"
"What?"
"A—an—unhappy—ending."[102]
He looked gravely at his sand castle. "No," he said, "I don't see how it can be avoided."
After a long silence she murmured, half to herself:
"Still, this is America—after all."
He shrugged, still studying his sand castle.
"I wish I had somebody to help me work it out," he said, half to himself.