“That's what you'd like me to do, isn't it?” he snapped. “But you don't just want me to slow down—you'd like me to quit altogether. What am I supposed to do all day, Rose? Go hand out sandwiches at your church? Try to convince myself that I'm doing good when I'm only there because I'm bored out of my mind?”

“At least it's better than adding to the mountain of forgettable theater that's produced every year!” The words just seemed to pop out of Rose's mouth. If he hadn't attacked her work at the soup kitchen she never would have said them—even if it was what she felt. But now it was out, and in a way she was glad. Bobby looked stunned. “Bobby,” she added, more reasonably, “you've proven you can write—”

“Forgettable theater,” he broke in. His voice was cold as ice. But now that she'd started, she knew she had to be honest.

“Not forgettable; that was too harsh. But it's not earth-shattering either. It's certainly not worth risking your health for. Listen to me,” she went on eagerly. “We don't need the money. We can live on your royalties, if we just cut back. We don't need this huge apartment and the servants…”

He was staring at her with such a strange expression. She let herself hope that he was actually listening to what he had to say.

“I've been thinking about this for a long time, Bobby. We don't need things, all the glitzy jewelry, and the clothes, and the cars—that's just stuff. And doing anything to get our names in the papers all the time. I know I was the one who started that, but I didn't realize what a trap it was…” She was so eager to say it all, she was practically tripping over her words. “We can walk away from all of that. Do something meaningful, something really useful!”

There was a long pause. When Bobby finally spoke, he used his new icy voice. She hadn't gotten through to him at all. “I like the huge apartment. I just wish it were bigger. I like having a maid and a cook, and I get a rush when I walk into Tiffany's and blow what would be three years’ salary for anyone else on a necklace for you. I want that necklace to be glitzy. I want pictures of you wearing it in every newspaper in town! I want my life to be over the top! Because all of that says, ‘Bobby Manning is in the room, ladies and gentlemen. Move over because he's coming through.’ And now you want to take that away from me.”

“I want you to have a better kind of life …”

“You want to take away who I am. You want to take away what I do.”

“You're more than your work. You're a father and a husband.”