she can’t love you . . . she’s tried . . . she’s acted like a good sport . . . but she’s beginning to hate you . . . and you can’t blame her . . . she wanted children . . . and you haven’t been able . . .
[Protesting feebly]
But I don’t know for certain . . . that that’s my fault . . .
[Then bitterly]
Aw, don’t kid yourself, if she’d married someone else . . . if Gordon had lived and married her . . . I’ll bet in the first month she’d . . . you’d better resign from the whole game . . . with a gun! . . .
[He swallows hard as if he were choking back a sob—then savagely]
Stop whining! . . . go on and wake her up! . . . say you’re willing to give her a divorce so she can marry some real guy who can give her what she ought to have! . . .
[Then with sudden terror]
And if she says yes? . . . I couldn’t bear it! . . . I’d die without her! . . .
[Then with a somber alien forcefulness]
All right . . . good riddance! . . . I’d have the guts to bump off then, all right! . . . that’d set her free . . . come on now! . . . ask her! . . .
[But his voice begins to tremble uncertainly again as he calls]
Nina.
Nina
[Opens her eyes and gazes calmly, indifferently at him]
Yes?
Evans
[Immediately terrified and beaten—thinking]
