She put both hands to her ears. He wrenched them fiercely aside and held them. She stood before him, her hands imprisoned in his, her eyes shut, on her face the look of one awaiting the blows about to rain down in her defencelessness.
"I may ha doubted him once, Joe. But I knaw him better now. May he forgive me—and you too; all the wrong I done you both. I knaw him, and myself, better than I did a while back. And now he's won me, I'll never loose him, never."
She spoke with a passion which convinced even that stubborn lover.
He drew back, and she knew from the sound of his breathing that she had beaten him.
"Then you was playin wi me?"
He brooded over her, sullen and smouldering.
She put out her hands to him with something of the appeal of a child.
"Hap a while back when you called me so strong I did answer you—more'n I should—not knawin you cared so much, Joe. And may be I thart if Ernie saw there was anudder man around hap it'd ginger him jealous and help us along. I was fighting for my home ... and my children ... and for him, Joe.... And when a woman's fighting..."
She broke off and gasped.
He met her remorselessly.