John P (19 Jul 13 - 07:29 PM): quite right. She wanted something different - a home -, not necessarily someone different. And he let her slip away, which suggests that theoretically he could have kept her, e.g. by offering to work for money to provide her a decent family home - traditionally the husband's task. If her decision had been final, the line would be "Then somewhere near Salinas suddenly she slipped away". The main point is that he is free, though not completely happy, without her.

This changes in JJ's version: her narrator, as I explained, had no choice and no longer feels free at all. (She "let him slip away" unintentionally, not in favour of more freedom.) That interpretation stuck. -

Ron, you have the perfect right to make a fool of yourself. If you did not want my explanation, others may have welcomed it. LH (19 Jul 13 - 07:49 AM) understood me alright. BTW, I am by no means the first to have "Paul all figured out" in that sense.