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Show 32 time, and the relief is great and greater, and he feels opening out around him a vast new open world, in which he can go any distance, in any direction. "No, no," he yells wildly, "no. no. no." Annis sees that something is happening to her husband; she rises in alarm from the floor, sits by him. She puts her hand to the inner surface of his wrist, touches his forehead for fever. "I can't do it, Annis. I won't." "What?" But she knows what, and she is silent a long time, as she always is when something earnestly troubles her. It is one of the things he has always loved about her, her care and caution in trouble, the collectedness with which she acts. After a very long time, in which no transition or emotion can be seen upon her face, she speaks. "I do not want to force you to do anything," she says. "Especially not this." She turns, and looks at him in a fully matter-of-fact way. "I am willing to wait." "Annis," he says, earnest. "I can't do it now. I can't do it ever." She is silent again, for another long time. "Then I will have to think about me." |