Anne came up to him without as much as a moment's pause and stood directly in front of him.
"What are you doin' in town?" she asked.
McCartney grunted and ran the tip of his tongue along the edge of the cigarette paper.
"Conductin' a revival meetin', Anne," he said, folding the paper into place. "Why?"
"Wherever you are there's somethin' dirty gettin' under way, if it ain't already done—that's why," Anne replied.
McCartney's face still grinned, but his heart was not in the smile with which he turned to her.
"Anne," he said, "you're a female—consequence is you can say what you please. It ain't nice to say it, but I wish you was a man."
"Lord!" Anne replied, "ain't I wished the same thing about three million times in two years. An' the wishes are all crowdin' each other right now, Bill."
She walked away and McCartney struck a match and touched it to his cigarette without speaking a word.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN