er. It's
substituted a bearable situation for an unbearable one."

"Then, you don't think she _knows_?"

"That Jerrold doesn't care for her? No. Only in that unconscious way.
Her mind remembers and _she_ doesn't."

"I mean, she doesn't know about Jerrold and me?"

"I'm sure she doesn't. If she did she'd do something."

"That's what Jerrold said. What would she do?"

"Oh something beautiful, or it wouldn't be Maisie. She'd let Jerrold
go."

"Yes. She'd let him go. And she'd die of it."

"Oh no, she wouldn't. I told Jerrold just now it might cure her."

"How _could_ it cure her?"

"By making her face reality. By making her see that her illness simply
means that she hasn't faced it. All our neuroses come because we daren't
live with the truth."

"It's no good making Maisie well if we make her unhappy. Besides, I
don't believe it. If Maisie's unhappy she'll be worse, not better."

"There _is_ just that risk," he said. "But it's you I'm thinking about,
not Maisie. You see, I don't know what's happened."

"Jerrold didn't tell you?"

"He only told me what I know already."

"After all, what _do_ you know?"

"I know you were all right, you and he, when I saw you together here in
the spring. So I suppose you were happy then. Jerrold looked wretchedly
ill all the time he was at Taormina. So I suppose he was unhappy then
because he was away from you. He looks wretchedly ill now. So do you. So
I suppose you're both unhappy."

"Yes, we're both unhappy."

"Do you want to tell me about it, Anne?"

"No. I don't want to tell you about it. Only, if I thought you still
wanted to marry me----"

"I do want to marry you. I shall always want to marry you. I told you
long ago nothing would ever make any difference.

"Even if----?"

"Even if--Whatever you did or didn't do I'd still want you. But I told
you--don't you remember?--that you could never do anything dishonourable
or cruel."

"And I told you I wasn't sure."

"And I am sure. That's enough for me. I don't want to know anything
more. I don't want to know anything you'd rather I didn't know."

"Oh, Eliot, you _are_ so good. You're good like Maisie. Don't worry
about Jerry and me. We'll see it through somehow."

"And if you can't stand the strain of it?"

"But I can."

"And if _he_ can't? If you want to be safe----"

"I told you I should never want to be safe."

"If you want _him_ to be safe, then, would you marry me?"

"That's different. I don't kn