This Side of Paradise

AMORY: And you love me.

ROSALIND: That's just why it has to end. Drifting hurts too much. We can't have any more scenes like this.

(She draws his ring from her finger and hands it to him. Their eyes blind again with tears.) AMORY: (His lips against her wet cheek) Don't! Keep it, please--oh, don't break my heart!

(She presses the ring softly into his hand.) ROSALIND: (Brokenly) You'd better go.

AMORY: Good-by-(She looks at him once more, with infinite longing, infinite sadness.) ROSALIND: Don't ever forget me, Amory-AMORY: Good-by-(He goes to the door, fumbles for the knob, finds it--she sees him throw back his head--and he is gone. Gone--she half starts from the lounge and then sinks forward on her face into the pillows.) ROSALIND: Oh, God, I want to die! (After a moment she rises and with her eyes closed feels her way to the door. Then she turns and looks once more at the room. Here they had sat and dreamed: that tray she had so often filled with matches for him; that shade that they had discreetly lowered one long Sunday afternoon. Misty-eyed she stands and remembers; she speaks aloud.) Oh, Amory, what have I done to you?

(And deep under the aching sadness that will pass in time, Rosalind feels that she has lost something, she knows not what, she knows not why.)