“No.  Because then he wouldn’t have cared for me.”

“No, I believe he wouldn’t.  He chose well.”

“You were always much too good to me.”

“No, Anne.  I want you to see this thing straight, and to see yourself as you really are.  Not to go back on yourself.”

“I don’t go back on myself.  That would be going back on Jerrold.  I’m sorry because of Maisie, that’s all.  If I’d had an ounce of sense I’d never have known her.  I’d have gone off to some place not too far away where Jerrold could have come to me and where I should never have seen Maisie.  That’s what I should have done.  We should both have been happy then.”

“Yes, Jerrold would have been happy.  And he wouldn’t have saved his soul.  And he’d have been deceiving Maisie all the time.  You don’t really wish you’d done that, Anne.”

“No.  Not now.  And I’m not unhappy about Maisie now.  I’m going away.  I’m giving Jerrold up.  I can’t do more than that.”

“You wouldn’t have to go away, Anne, if you’d do what I want and marry me.  You said perhaps you might if you had to save Jerrold.”

“Did I?  I don’t think I did.”

“You’ve forgotten and I haven’t.  You don’t know what an appalling thing you’re doing.  You’re leaving everything and everybody you ever cared for.  You’ll die of sheer unhappiness.”

“Nonsense, Eliot.  You know perfectly well that people don’t die of unhappiness.  They die of accidents and diseases and old age.  I shall die of old age.  And I’ll be back in twenty years’ time if I’ve seen it through.”

“Twenty years.  The best years of your life.  You’ll be desperately lonely.  You don’t know what it’ll be like.”

“Oh yes, I do.  I’ve been lonely before now.  And I’ve saved myself by working.”

“Yes, in England, where you could see some of us sometimes.  But out there, with people you never saw before—­people who may be brutes—­”

“They needn’t be.”

He went on relentlessly.  “People you don’t care for and never will care for.  You’ve never really cared for anybody but us.”

“I haven’t.  I’m going because I care.  I can’t let Jerry go on like that.  I’ve got to end it.”

“You’re going simply to save Jerrold.  So that you can never go back to him.  Don’t you see that if you married me you’d both be safe?  You couldn’t go back.  If you were married to me Jerrold wouldn’t take you from me.  If you were married to me you wouldn’t break faith with me.  If you had children you wouldn’t break faith with them.  Nothing could keep you safer.”

“I can’t, Eliot.  Nothing’s changed.  I belong to Jerrold.  I always have belonged to him.  It isn’t anything physical.  Even if I’m separated from him, thousands of miles, I shall belong to him still.  My mind, or soul, or whatever the thing is, can’t get away from him....  You say if I belonged to you I couldn’t give myself to Jerrold.  If I belong to Jerrold, how can I give myself to you?”