He followed her and caught at her dress.
"Don't go. Don't leave me this way. I can't believe it. I can't
stand it. If I hadn't grown into thinking you were going to be my wife
maybe I could. But it's just unbearable when I'd got used to looking
upon you as mine, almost as good as married to me. You can't do it.
You can't make me suffer this way."
His complete abandonment filled her with pain, the first relenting she
had had. She could not look at him and longed to escape. She tried to
draw her dress from his hands, saying:
"Oh, David, don't say any more. There's no good. It's over. It's
ended. I can't help it. It's something stronger than I am."
He saw the repugnance in her face and loosened his hold, dropping back
from her.
"It's the end of my life," he said in a muffled voice.
"I feel as if it was the end of the world," she answered, and going to
the pathway disappeared over its edge.
She walked back skirting the rock's bulk till she found a break in its
side, a small gorge shadowed by high walls. The cleft penetrated deep,
its mouth open to the sky, its apex a chamber over which the cloven
walls slanted like hands with finger tips touching in prayer.
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