He was conscious that his own appeal pressed her hard; it eased him a
little that her answer must be a pain to her discretion. She answered
none the less, and he was truly the harder pressed. "What I believe
will inevitably depend more or less on your action. You can perfectly
settle it--if you care. I promise to believe you down to the ground if,
to save her life, you consent to a denial."
"But a denial, when it comes to that--confound the whole thing, don't
you see!--of exactly what?"
It was as if he were hoping she would narrow; but in fact she enlarged.
"Of everything."
Everything had never even yet seemed to him so incalculably much. "Oh!"
he simply moaned into the gloom.