"You were in love with my mother, weren't you?" she questioned him kindly.
"Yes, I suppose I was," mused Abner, still with his gaze upon the curling smoke.
"What do you mean by 'you suppose you were'?" snapped Ann. "Didn't you know?"
The tone recalled him from his dreams.
"I was in love with your mother very much," he corrected himself, turning to her with a smile.
"Then why didn't you marry her?" asked Ann. "Wouldn't she have you?"
"I never asked her," explained Abner.
"Why not?" persisted Ann, returning to asperity.
He thought a moment.
"You wouldn't understand," he told her.