ANDREW. (_with conviction_) No--there was something back of it. RUTH. He wanted to make sure I’d be all right--after he’d gone, I expect. ANDREW. No, it wasn’t that. He knows very well I’d naturally look after you without--anything like that. RUTH. He might be thinking of--something happened five years back, the time you came home from the trip. ANDREW. What happened? What do you mean? RUTH. (_dully_) We had a fight. ANDREW. A fight? What has that to do with me? RUTH. It was about you--in a way. ANDREW. (_amazed_) About _me_? RUTH. Yes, mostly. You see I’d found out I’d made a mistake about Rob soon after we were married--when it was too late. ANDREW. Mistake? (_Slowly_) You mean--you found out you didn’t love Rob? RUTH. Yes. ANDREW. Good God! RUTH. And then I thought that when Mary came it’d be different, and I’d love him; but it didn’t happen that way. And I couldn’t bear with his blundering and book-reading--and I grew to hate him, almost. ANDREW. Ruth! RUTH. I couldn’t help it. No woman could. It had to be because I loved someone else, I’d found out. (_She sighs wearily_) It can’t do no harm to tell you now--when it’s all past and gone--and dead. _You_ were the one I really loved--only I didn’t come to the knowledge of it ’til too late. ANDREW. (_stunned_) Ruth! Do you know what you’re saying? RUTH. It was true--then. (_With sudden fierceness_) How could I help it? No woman could. ANDREW. Then--you loved me--that time I came home? RUTH. (_doggedly_) I’d known your real reason for leaving home the first time--everybody knew it--and for three years I’d been thinking---- ANDREW. That I loved you? RUTH. Yes. Then that day on the hill you laughed about what a fool you’d been for loving me once--and I knew it was all over. ANDREW. Good God, but I never thought---- (_He stops, shuddering at his remembrance_) And did Rob---- RUTH. That was what I’d started to tell. We’d had a fight just before you came and I got crazy mad--and I told him all I’ve told you. ANDREW. (_gaping at her speechlessly for a moment_) You told Rob--you loved me? RUTH. Yes. ANDREW. (_shrinking away from her in horror_) You--you--you mad fool, you! How could you do such a thing? RUTH. I couldn’t help it. I’d got to the end of bearing things--without talking. ANDREW. Then Rob must have known every moment I stayed here! And yet he never said or showed--God, how he must have suffered! Didn’t you know how much he loved you? RUTH. (_dully_) Yes. I knew he liked me. ANDREW. Liked you! What kind of a woman are you? Couldn’t you have kept silent? Did you have to torture him? No wonder he’s dying! And you’ve lived together for five years with this between you? RUTH. We’ve lived in the same house. ANDREW. Does he still think---- RUTH. I don’t know. We’ve never spoke a word about it since that day. Maybe, from the way he went on, he s’poses I care for you yet. ANDREW. But you don’t. It’s outrageous. It’s stupid! You don’t love me!