'You must ask the heavens ?' 'Meaning, I presume, that like most of the Australian squatters, your husband hasn't capital enough at his back to stand up against continued drought ?' 'Precisely.' She looked at him, with her puzzling smile.
'But you couldn't have understood his position when you married him ?' 'No, I didn't--altogether.

But I should really like to remind you that I am not in the witness box.' 'I think you owe me the truth!' he said, passionately.
'What do you call the truth ?' she asked, reining in her horse and meeting his eyes straight.
But she had to turn hers away before he answered, and he as well as herself was conscious of the compelling effect his gaze had upon her.
'I could have made you marry me if I had been strong enough to persist,' he said.
'Cannot any man do what he is strong enough to do--if he wishes it enough to persist ?' 'I should have put it this way.

If I had thought less of you and more of myself.

But after what you said that day, when you jeered so contemptuously at the kind of environment in which, THEN, I should have had to place my wife--what could I do--except withdraw?
But you suffered, Bridget,' he went on vehemently.

'Not so much as I did--but still you suffered.