“Emily, what are you saying? Lift up your head.... I can’t hear.”
“Oh, you can’t hear, you can’t hear. Nobody can save me.”
She slipped her shoulder from under his hand. She stood up. “There is no comfort anywhere for me,” she said. She looked out of the window. She was more quiet but often her long upward breaths were sobs. “Go away, Edward. I can’t dine anywhere with you. With people looking on. I can’t stop crying any more.”
The time for touching her was perhaps over, but he stood beside her at the window and took her indifferent hand. “I can’t go away. I can’t leave you alone.”
“I can never be alone. That’s the dreadful part. I can’t get away from myself. I am horrible to myself.”
“You are perfect to me.”
Her hand in his trembled a little. What did she say? She spoke in such a shaking small voice.
“Yes ... after all my lovely life ... I am loved by you.”
Could she have said that?