[Quietly.] I guess we all hate the prairie sometimes, but when you’ve once lived in it, it ain’t easy to live anywhere else.
Norah.
I know the life now. It’s not adventurous and exciting. For men and women it’s the same hard work from morning till night, and I know it’s the women who bear the greater burden. The men go into the towns, they have shooting now and then, and the different seasons bring them different work. But for the women it’s always the same, cooking, mending, washing, sweeping. And yet it’s all got a meaning. We, too, have our part in opening up the country. We are its mothers and the future is in us. We are building up the greatness of the nation. It needs our courage and strength and hope, and because it needs them, they come to us. Oh, Frank, I can’t go back to that petty, narrow life. What have you done to me?
Taylor.
[Hoarsely.] I guess if I asked you to stay now, you’d stay.
Norah.
[In a low voice.] You said you wanted my love. Don’t you know?... Love has been growing in me slowly, month by month, and I wouldn’t see it. I told myself I hated you. I was ashamed. It’s only to-day, when I had the means of leaving you for ever, that I knew I couldn’t live without you. I’m not ashamed any more. I love you.
Taylor.
I guess I loved you from the beginning, Norah.
Norah.