“Is the reality really better? No; don’t answer that! I don’t want you to. Answer me something else. About Betty Raleigh.”
“What about her?”
“If I were a man I should find her an irresistible sort of person. Entirely aside from her art. Are you going to marry her, Ban?”
“No.”
“Tell me why not.”
“For one reason because she doesn’t want to marry me.”
“Have you asked her? It’s none of my business. But I don’t believe you have. Tell me this; would you have asked her, if it hadn’t been for—if Number Three had never been wrecked in the cut? You see the old railroad terms you taught me still cling. Would you?”
“How do I know? If the world hadn’t changed under my feet, and the sky over my head—”
“Is it so changed? Do the big things, the real things, ever change?... Don’t answer that, either. Ban, if I’ll go out of your life now, and stay out, honestly, will you marry Betty Raleigh and—and live happy ever after?”
“Would you want me to?”