"At least we should be alive and safe and well."
"Should we be well if our whole life became abominable to us, Helena? ... On the other hand——"
"On the other hand, you want us to part—never to see each other again."
"It's hard—I know it's hard—but isn't that better than to become odious in each other's eyes?"
A cruel mixture of anger and sorrow and despair took possession of her, and, choking with emotion, she said—
"I have nobody but you now, yet you want me to tear my heart out—to sacrifice the love that is my only happiness, my only refuge.... Oh, I cannot do it! You are asking me to send you into the jaws of death itself—that's it—the very jaws of death itself—and I cannot do it. I tell you I cannot, I cannot! There is no woman in the world who could."
There was silence for a moment after this vehement cry; then in a low tone he said—
"Every soldier's wife does as much when she sends her husband into battle, Helena."
"Ah!"
She caught her breath as if a hand from heaven had smitten her.