"I tell you I'm sorry, Ellen. But I can't do nothing bout it."
"Yes, you can. You can marry this man, Hill—then no one need ever know, Tip need never know—"
"Reckon that wouldn't keep them from knowing. They'd see as I was getting married in a hurry—not an invitation out and my troossoo not half ready—and then they'd count the months till the baby came. No, I tell you, it'll be much better if I go away. Everyone ull think as I'm bust, through having lost my case, and I'll go right away—Chichester, I'd thought of going to, where Martha Relf is—and when the baby comes, no one till be a bit the wiser."
"Of course they will. They'll know all about it—everything gets known here, and you've never in your life been able to keep a secret. If you marry, people won't talk in the same way—it'll be only guessing, anyhow. You needn't be down here when the baby's born—and at least Tip needn't know. Joanna, if you love me, if you ever loved me, you'll send a wire to this man and tell him that you've changed your mind and must see him—you can easily make up the quarrel, whatever it was."
"Maybe he wouldn't marry me now, even if I did wire."
"Nonsense—he'd have to."
"Well, he won't be asked."
Joanna was stiffening with grief. She had not expected to have this battle with Ellen; she had been prepared for abuse and upbraiding, but not for argument—it had not struck her that her sister would demand the rehabilitation she herself refused.
"You're perfectly shameless," sobbed Ellen. "My God! It ud take a woman like you to brazen through a thing like this. Swanking, swaggering, you've always been ... well, I bet you'll find this too much even for your swagger—you don't know what you're letting yourself in for.... I can tell you a little, for I've known, I've felt, what people can be.... I've had to face them—when you wouldn't let Arthur give me my divorce."
"Well, I'll just about have to face 'em, that's all. I done wrong, and I don't ask not to be punished."