There was no way to answer him. Emilia opened her mouth slightly, to speak, and faltered. Yea, she did know. Ay, she could guess. But speak what she knew, what she guessed-she could not. Saying it aloud would pain both of them; saying it aloud would confirm it to be true when both of them wished that it might yet not be… She bowed her head and dropped her hands gently into her lap.
"...I am sorry for it," she murmured, not knowing what else she could say, and lamenting the fact that her words could have no effect. O, the utter helplessness that she felt! She wished more than anything that there was something in her power she could do to change Iago's circumstances...reverse his despondency...but there was nothing. The revelation of Iago's fortunes...their fortunes...began to sap what little strength Emilia had left. She stood and crossed to the other side of the room to remove her outer layers of clothing so that she stood only in her smock.
She found herself gazing out of the window when she had done. The moon was full. She wondered if Desdemona and the Moor were dancing again tonight; in faith, she could imagine them in her mind as clearly as if they were really before her. Desdemona would be smiling brightly, the moonlight reflected in her own pale orbs, and as for the Moor...Emilia had seen his strong arms, and had been surprised by the gentleness yet exhibited in them. Surely now those arms led the lady in step; held her close to his breast now and then... Indeed, what privilege it was to be able to dance.
Emilia did not want to tear herself from the window; did not want to turn back and find herself in the room where nightmares transpired, conscious and otherwise; did not want to be reminded of the situation at hand; did not want to see her poor, distraught husband and feel bitterness because they would never dance. For as long as she stared out the window into the night sky, she was in some other world where she did not have to focus on anything but a velvet blackness and the speckling lights of stars and a bright, full moon.