"Anna, for God's sake, hate me. Hate me. Loathe me the rest of your life. I've lied and lied to you--nothing but lies.... No, that's not true. But now it is. Think of me as vile when I go away.... Otherwise..." Tears blubbered out of him. ... "otherwise I'll die thinking of you. Don't look at me that way. Yell at me.... You've known it. I can't help it.... It's something. I can't help it." Behind this voice he thought: "It's not me alone. Nights of love ... kisses ... Jimmie ... seven years.... Little things. Oh, God, little things. We're all leaving her--pulling ourselves out of her." "Where are you going, my son?" Could he lie now? Yes, anything that made it easier. "Nowhere. Anywhere. I must go. Otherwise I'll choke to death. Take care of her. There's money. All hers. I'll write later about it. Anna ... don't please." The thing was a botch. Wrong, all wrong. But that didn't matter. His coat and hat mattered more than phrases. Looking for a coat and hat when he should be winding up the scene properly. These were preposterous banalities that distinguished life, unedited, from melodrama. Where was his hat? His hat ... hat ... Life, Fate, Tragedy had mislaid his insufferable hat. Ah ... on the floor. She was standing staring at him. Would she die on her feet? Quick, before the shriek. It was coming ... a madness that would frighten him forever if he heard it. What a scoundrel he was! Why deny it? But in a few years he would be dead and no longer a scoundrel, and all this so much forgotten dust. "Write to us, my son. And come back soon." He closed the door softly behind him and started to walk. But his legs ran. It had been easy ... easy. He stumbled, sprawled upon the iced pavement, bruising his face. He picked himself up unaware that he had stopped running. Night, houses, streets, what matter? In a few years--dust. But he had left in time. That was the important thing. Another minute and he would have heard her. A terrible unheard sound. He had left it behind. He had left her unfinished. Why was he running? Oh, yes--Anna. He paused and held his eyes from staring back at his house. His eyes would pull him back to the door. Little things--oh, the little things made hurts. He must turn a corner. Light does not travel around corners. Gone. The house was gone with all its little things. One jerk and he had ripped away....