ather_. But--_don't make it impossible for me_--do you understand?

STERLING. Yes! I must take the true advantage of this chance your
goodness gives me. I must right myself, so that people need not hesitate
to speak of his father in Richard's presence. _And this I will do._
[_With great conviction he rises._] I know I am at the cross-roads, and
I know the way; _but_ I don't choose it for _your_ reasons; I choose for
my own reason--which is that, unfit as _I am, I love you._

[_He speaks deliberately and with real feeling, bending over her._

BLANCHE. I tell you truly my love for you is gone for good.

STERLING. I'll win it back--you _did_ love me, you _did_, didn't you,
Blanche?

BLANCHE.. I loved the man I thought you were. Do you remember that day
in the mountains when we first really came to know each other, when we
walked many, many miles without dreaming of being tired?

STERLING. And found ourselves at sunset at the top instead of below, by
our hotel! Oh, yes, I remember! The world changed for me that day.

[_He sinks back into the arm-chair, overcome, in his weakened state, by
his memories and his realization of what he has made of the present._

BLANCHE. And for me! I knew then for the first time you loved me, and
that I loved you. Oh! how short life of a sudden seemed! Not half long
enough for the happiness it held for me! [_She turns upon him with a
vivid change of feeling._] Has it turned out so?

STERLING. How different! Oh, what a beast! what a fool!

BLANCHE. [_Speaking with pathetic emotion, tears in her throat and in
her eyes._] And that early summer's day you asked me to be your wife!
[_She gives a little exclamation, half a sob, half a laugh._] It was in
the corner of the garden; I can smell the lilacs now! And the raindrops
fell from the branches as my happy tears did on father's shoulder that
night, when I said, "Father, he will make me the happiest woman in the
world!"

STERLING. O God! to have your love back!

BLANCHE. You can't breathe life back into a dead thing; how different
the world would be if one could!

STERLING. You can bring back life to the drowned; perhaps your love is
only drowned in the sorrow I've caused.

BLANCHE. [_Smiles sadly and shakes her head; the smile dies away._] Life
to me then was like a glorious staircase, and I mounted happy step after
step led by your hand till everything _seemed_ to culminate on the day
of our wedding. You men don't, _can't_ realize, w