Marathe and Kate at Ryle's — "There was for this woman in…"
‘There was for this woman in the embanking no possible choosing. Without the containing helmet all energies in her were committed to the shaping of the oral cavity in a shape that allowed breathing, which was a task of great enormity, for her head it had also neither muscles nor nerves.
Context
The asymmetry under the love story: Gertraude cannot choose him back — breathing alone consumes everything she has. Kate's romantic-comedy hope ("she looked at your missing limbs and didn't even see them and chose you right back") is flatly unavailable; Marathe's choice has to be sufficient on its own, which is the point.