human
If your Church will not allow you to divorce your husband, and if you and I cannot marry without that, then . . .
gpt
Yes?
human
I didn't mean to propose it . . . God knows I didn't, but when a woman . . . when a woman has been forced into a loveless marriage, and it is crushing the very soul out of her, and the iron law of her Church will not permit her to escape from it, what crime does she commit if she . . .
gpt
Well?
human
Mary, he said, breathing, hard and fast,
gpt
Oh, I know, he said.
human
It's not what we could wish. But we'll be open about it. We'll face it out. Why shouldn't we? I shall anyway. And if your father and the Bishop say anything to me I'll tell them what I think of the abominable marriage they forced you into. As for you, dear, I know you'll have to bear something. All the conventional canting hypocrisies! Every man who has bought his wife, and every woman who has sold herself into concubinage--there are thousands and thousands of them all the world over, and they'll try . . . perhaps they'll try . . . but let them try. If they want to trample the life out of you they'll have to walk over me first--yes, by God they will!
gpt
But Martin . . .
human
Well?
gpt
Do you mean that I . . . I am . . . to . . . to live with you without marriage?
human
It's the only thing possible, isn't it?