“She’s got a grandfather and grandmother, alive and hearty, back at Springfield.”
“She is all that has kept me alive these last years.”
“She’s got to go back to her people now. She’ll want to bad enough when she knows about this.”
“About this? Surely you won’t tell her—”
“Look here now, why not? What do you expect?”
“But she loves me—she does—and she’s all I’ve got. Man, man! don’t pile it all on me just at the last.”
He was off the bed and on his knees before Follett.
“Don’t put it all on me. I’ve rounded up my back to the rest of it, but keep this off; please, please don’t. Let her always think I’m not bad. Give me that one thing out of all the world.”
He tried to reach the young man’s hand, but was pushed roughly away.
“Don’t do that—get up—stop, I tell you. That ain’t any way to do. There now! Lie down again. What do you want? I’m not going to leave that ain’t any way to do. There now! Lie down again. What do you want? I’m not going to leave that girl with you nor with your infernal Church. You understand that.”