Jim feared she might swoon. "You
don't mean that he was----"
"Oh, no," he answered, quickly, "of course not. Parsons don't
come to places like this one. I was only figurin' that yer
didn't want OTHER folks to see yer and to tell him how you was
ridin'." She did not answer.
"Was that it, Poll?" he urged.
"I don't know." She stared into space.
"Was it?"
"I guess it was," she said, after a long time.
"I knowed it," he cried. "I was a fool to a-brung you back. Yer
don't belong with us no more."
"Oh, don't, Jim! don't! Don't make me feel I'm in the way here,
too!"
"Here, too?" He looked at her in astonishment. "Yer wasn't in
HIS way, was yer, Poll?"
"Yes, Jim." She saw his look of unbelief and continued
hurriedly. "Oh, I tried not to be. I tried so hard. He used to
read me verses out of a Bible about my way being his way and my
people his people, but it isn't so, Jim. Your way is the way you
are born, and your people are the people you are born with, and
you can't change it, Jim, no matter how hard you try."
"YOU was changin' it," he answered, savagely. "You was gettin'
jes' like them people. It was me what took yer away and spoiled
it all. You oughtn't to a come. What made yer, after yer said
yer wouldn't?"
She did not answer.
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