Oh, I can't bear to think of what it all means--Now that it's too late, I see what I ought to have done.
In spite of everything and everybody I ought to have married him in the first year, when I had courage and hope enough to face any hardships.
We spoke of it, but he was too generous.

What a splendid thing to have starved with him--to have worked for him whilst he was working for art and fame, to have gone through and that together, and have come out triumphant! That was a life worth living.

But to begin marriage at one's ease on the profits of pictures such as 'Sanctuary'-- oh, the shame of it! Do you think I could face the friends who would come to see me ?" "How many friends," asked Bertha, "would be aware of your infamy?
I credit myself with a little imagination.

But I should never have suspected the black baseness which had poisoned your soul." Again Rosamund bit her lip, and kept a short silence.
"It only shows," she said with some abruptness, "that I shall do better not to speak of it at all, and let people think what they like of me.
If even _you_ can't understand." Bertha stood still, and spoke in a changed voice.
"I understand very well--or think I do.

I'm perfectly sure that you could never have broken your engagement unless for the gravest reason--and for me it is quite enough to know that.