human
We have known and cared for each other all our lives, Mary--isn't that so? It seems as if there never was a time when we didn't know and care for each other. Are we to pray to God, as you say, that a time may come when we shall feel as if we had never known and cared for each other at all?
gpt
he said.
human
I never shall--never as long as I live. No prayers will ever help me to forget you.
gpt
And you . . . will you be able to forget _me_? By praying to God will you be able to wipe me out of your mind?
human
A woman lives in her heart, doesn't she? he said.
gpt
Love is everything to her . . . everything except her religion. Will it be possible--this renunciation . . . will it be possible for you either?
human
It will not. You know it will not. You will never be able to renounce your love. Neither of us will he able to renounce it. It isn't possible. It isn't human. . . . Well, what then? If we continue to love each other--you here and I down there--we shall be just as guilty in the eyes of the Church, shan't we?
gpt
Then think again, Mary. Only give one glance to the horrible life that is before you when I am gone. You have been married a year . . . only a year . . . and you have suffered terribly. But there is worse to come. Your husband's coarse infidelity has been shocking, but there will be something more shocking than his infidelity--his affection. Have you never thought of _that_?
human
Forgive me, dear. I'm bound to speak plainly now. If I didn't I should never forgive myself in the future . . . Listen! Your husband will get over his fancy for this . . . this woman. He'll throw her off, as he has thrown off women of the same kind before. What will happen then? He'll remember that you belong to him . . . that he has rights in you . . . that you are his wife and he is your husband . . . that the infernal law which denies you the position of an equal human being gives him a right--a legal right--to compel your obedience. Have you never thought of _that_?
gpt
That's the life that is before you when I am gone--to live with this man whom you loathe . . . year after year, as long as life lasts . . . occupying the same house, the same room, the same . . .
human
Martin, I said,