d I had failed. I was not enough.

BIGELOW--Curt!

CURTIS--Oh, I tried to become reconciled. I tried my damnedest. I tried
to love this child as I had loved those that died. But I couldn't. And
so, this being estranged us. We loved as intensely as ever but IT
pushed us apart. I grew to dread the idea of this intruder. She saw
this in me. I denied it--but she knew. There was something in each of
us the other grew to hate. And still we loved as never before, perhaps,
for we grew to pity each other's helplessness.

BIGELOW--Curt! Are you sure you ought to tell anyone this?

CURTIS--[Waving his remark aside.] One day, when I was trying to
imagine myself without her, and finding nothing but hopelessness--yet
knowing I must go--a thought suddenly struck me--a horrible but
fascinating possibility that had never occurred to me before. [With
feverish intensity.] Can you guess what it was?

BIGELOW--No. And I think you've done enough morbid raving, if you ask
me.

CURTIS--The thought that came to me was that if a certain thing
happened, Martha could still go with me. And I knew, if it did happen,
that she would want to go, that she would fling herself into the spirit
of our work to forget, that she would be mine more than ever.

BIGELOW--[Afraid to believe the obvious answer.] Curt!

CURTIS--Yes. My thought was that the child might be born dead.

BIGELOW--[Repelled--sternly.] Damn it, man, do you know what you're
saying? [Relentingly.] No, Curt, old boy, do stop talking. If you don't
I'll send for a doctor, damned if I won't. That talk belongs in an
asylum. God, man, can't you realize this is your child--yours as well
as hers?

CURTIS--I've tried. I cannot. There is some inexorable force in me--

BIGELOW--[Coldly.] Do you realize how contemptible this confession
makes you out? [Angrily.] Why, if you had one trace of human kindness
in you--one bit of unselfish love for your wife--one particle of pity
for her suffering--

CURTIS--[Anguished.] I have--all the love and pity in the world for
her! That's why I can't help hating--the cause of her suffering.

BIGELOW--Have you never thought that you might repay Martha for giving
up all her life to you by devoting the rest of yours to her?

CURTIS--[Bitterly.] She can be happy without me. She will have this
child--to take my place. [Intensely.] You think I would not give up my
work for her? But I would! I will stay here--do anything she wishes--if
only we can make a new b