"I don't believe it. It's only your way of saying that you don't care for _me_." "I like you. I always have liked you. I'll go farther--if I ever loved any man it would be you." "The fact remains that it isn't?" "It isn't, and it never will be. But you may be very certain that it will never be anyone else." "Tell me one thing--was there ever a time when it might have been?" "That isn't fair. I can't answer that question." "You can. Think--was there ever a time, no matter how short, the fraction of a minute, when if I'd only had the sense, if I had only known----" "Are you sure you didn't know? I was afraid you did." "Then you really mean it--that if I'd only asked you then----" "Thank Heaven, you did not!" "Why are you thanking Heaven?" "Because--because--I can't be sure, but I might--I might have taken you at your word." "And why not?" "I would have made a great mistake. The same mistake that you are making now." "Mistake?" "You mistook the idea for the reality once, if you remember--and now aren't you mistaking the reality for the idea?" "Frida, you are too subtle; you are the most exasperating woman in the world----" "There, you see. That's the sort of thing we should always be saying to each other if I let you have your way. But supposing you did have it; if we were married we could not understand each other better than we do; so we should not be one bit better off. By this time we should have got beyond the phase we started with----" "But we should have _had_ it----" "Yes; and found ourselves precisely where we are now." "Where we were yesterday, you mean." "Yes. We were good enough friends yesterday." "And what are we to-day? Enemies?" She smiled sadly. "It looks like it. At any rate, we seem to have some difficulty in understanding each other." "Good God! how coolly you talk about it! Understanding! Do you never feel? Has it never even occurred to you that I can feel? Have you any notion what it is to be made of flesh and blood and nerves, and to have to stay here, squeezed up in this confounded boat, where I can't get away from you?" "You can get away in three-quarters of an hour, and meanwhile, if you like, you can go below." "If I did go below I should still feel you walking over my head. I should hear you breathe. And now to look at you and touch you, and know all the time that something sticks between us----"