HE.
Pauline,
I have three things to choose from; you shall choose:
This marriage, or Siberia, or France.
The first means hell; the second, purgatory;
The third—with you—were nothing less than heaven!
SHE, STARTING.
How dared you even dream it!
HE.
I was mad.
This business has touched me in the brain.
Have patience! the calamity's so new.
(Pauses.)
There is a fourth way; but that gate is shut
To brave men who hold life a thing of God.
SHE.
Yourself spoke there; the rest was not of you.
HE.
Oh, lift me to your level! So I'm safe.
What's to be done?