“Easily.”

“How—how?”

“I love him.”

“Still?”

“Yes. And I’d go through just such another three years if I thought that he would love me at the end—gladly I would.”

“But suppose he never does love you! What then? How long can you last out like this? Don’t you want to live?”

“Oh, yes, I want to live.”

“Well then?”

“But all the folk who want to live can’t have their way. Perhaps I shall just go on wanting till even the want dies.”

“That’s unthinkable.”