If you love Claude really, that mightn’t be too great a price to pay for his happiness.
Grace.
[Vehemently.] Oh, it’s all very well for you to talk, but you don’t know what this sense of shame is. It’s killing me. And the degradation of being loved for what you’re not. And you want me never to escape from it. Oh, you’re right. It would be a fiendish punishment.
Miss Vernon.
It’s the only return you can make for all the love that Claude has given you.
Grace.
[Taking up the thought.] For his wonderful kindness, and all these years of thought and loving tenderness.
[For a moment Grace stares in front of her as the words sink in.
Miss Vernon.
Grace, it’s I who ask you now to be brave.