"It's a lie! You know it's a lie!"
"It's true. I'm no fool."
She beat her hands together distractedly, "What have you done?
What will those men think? Listen! You must stop them quickly.
Tell them it's not so."
He seemed not to hear her. "I'm going away to-morrow," he said,
"but I'll never divorce you, no matter what you do; and I won't
let you divorce me, either. No, no! Take him now, if you want him,
but you'll never be able to marry him until I'm gone. And I won't
die soon--I promise you that, I'm going to live."
"You can't go--"
"There's a boat to-morrow."
"Don't you see you must stay and explain to those men? My God!
They'll think you spoke the truth; they'll BELIEVE what you said."
"Of course they will," he chattered, shrilly. "That's why I did it
in that way. No matter what you or he or I can do or say now,
they'll believe it forever. It came to me like a flash of light,
and I saw what it meant all in a minute. Do YOU understand what it
means, eh? Listen! No matter how you behave, they'll know. They
won't say anything, but they'll know, and you can't stand that,
can you? Even if you could fool me once more against the evidence
of my own eyes and ears, and convince me that your lies are true,
it wouldn't do any good with them.
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