And then suddenly I thought--what am I
worth to you?
KATHARINE. This--that if now you told me to go--because it was for your
good--I'd go--glad--yes glad that you'd made me do for you, at last,
something that was hard to do--for the first time, dearest, for the first
time!
PARNELL (_deeply moved_). That so? Not an accident, then, eh?
KATHARINE (_embracing him_). Oh, my dear, my dear, my dear!
PARNELL. How true to life love makes everything!--so clear and straight--
looking back now. Through you I've learned this truth at any rate--that
there are two things about which a man must never compromise--first his
own soul, the right to be himself--no matter what others may think or do.
KATHARINE. And the other?
PARNELL. His instinct, of trust or distrust, in the character of others. I
hadn't any real doubt, but I compromised with instinct to gain my end: did
things I didn't believe were any good--accepted the word of men I didn't
trust. Home Rule itself was a compromise that I made myself accept. But I
never really believed in it. For you can't limit the liberty of a nation,
if it's really alive. Then came the smash--that woke me. And that I was
awake at last our love came to be the proof...Something different has got
to be now. Ireland will have to become more real--more herself, more of a
rebel than ever she has been yet. If, thirty years hence, my failure shall
have helped to bring that about--an Ireland really free--then I've won.
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