Why does a man work? It's for a home, for the sake of power, and
mostly for the sake of the game."

"Yes."

"And I could play that game--I can play it now, and win at it, any
time I like. I quit it not because I was afraid of the game--it's the
easiest thing in the world to make money, if that's all you really
want to do. That's all your father wanted, or mine, and it was easy. I
can play that game. But why? Ah! if it were to win a quiet home, the
woman I loved, independence, usefulness, contentment,--yes! But when
all those stakes were out of the game, Helena, I didn't care to play
it any more. And that was why you thought I ran away. I did run
away--from myself, and you."

She was silent now, and perhaps paler--I could not see.

"--But wherever I have gone, Helena, all over the world, I've found
those two people there ahead of me, and I couldn't escape
them--myself, and you!"

"Did you think that of me, Harry?" She half whispered once more.

"Yes, I did. And did you think that of me?"

"Yes, I did. But I did not understand."

"No. Like many a woman, you got cause and effect mixed up: and you
never troubled yourself to get it straight. Let me tell you, unless
two people can come to each other without compromises and without
explanations and without reservations, they would better never come
at all. I don't want you cheap, you oughtn't to want me cheap. So how
can it end any way other than the way it has? If it was my loss of
fortune that made you chuck me, I oughtn't ever to give you a second
thought, for you wouldn't be worth it. The fact you did, and that I
do, hasn't anything to do with it at all."

"No."

"And if you don't think me able and disposed to play a man's part in
the world, you oughtn't to care a copper for me, that is plain, isn't
it?"

"Yes, quite plain."

"And the fact that you did, and that you do, has nothing to do with
it--nothing in the world, has it, Helena?"

"No." She must have been very pale, though I could not tell.

"Therefore, as logic shows us, my dear, and because we never did get
our premises straight, and so never will get our conclusions straight,
either--we don't belong together and never can come together, can we?"

"No." I could barely hear her whisper.

"No. And that is why, just before you came, I was trying to pull
myself together and to advance as best an unhappy devil may, upon
Chaos and the Dark! And that's all I see ahead, Helena, without
you--Chaos and t