_] No.
STERLING. [_Cries._] Blanche!
[_In a tone of amazement and joy._
BLANCHE. I give you one more chance, for your sake _only as my boy's
father_. But--_don't make it impossible for me_--do you understand?
STERLING. Yes! I must take the true advantage of this chance your
goodness gives me. I must right myself, so that people need not hesitate
to speak of his father in Richard's presence. _And this I will do._
[_With great conviction he rises._] I know I am at the cross-roads, and
I know the way; _but_ I don't choose it for _your_ reasons; I choose for
my own reason--which is that, unfit as _I am, I love you._
[_He speaks deliberately and with real feeling, bending over her._
BLANCHE. I tell you truly my love for you is gone for good.
STERLING. I'll win it back--you _did_ love me, you _did_, didn't you,
Blanche?
BLANCHE.. I loved the man I thought you were. Do you remember that day
in the mountains when we first really came to know each other, when we
walked many, many miles without dreaming of being tired?
STERLING. And found ourselves at sunset at the top instead of below, by
our hotel! Oh, yes, I remember! The world changed for me that day.
[_He sinks back into the arm-chair, overcome, in his weakened state, by
his memories and his realization of what he has made of the present.
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