“I don't care. I don't care if I wake up all creation. Emeline, I believe you was worried about me, same as I was about you. More'n that,” he added, conviction and exultation in his tone, “I don't believe 'twas eggs that fetched you here this mornin' at all. I believe you came to find out if we—if I was all right. Didn't you?”
“I didn't come to SEE you, be sure of that,” with emphatic scorn.
“I know. But you was goin' to see Brown and find out from him. Answer me. Answer me now, didn't—”
She stepped toward the door. He extended an arm and held her back.
“You answer me,” he commanded.
She tried to pass him, but his arm was like an iron bar. She hesitated a moment and then laughed nervously.
“You certainly have took to orderin' folks round since the old days,” she said. “Why, yes, then; I did come to find out if you hadn't got cold, or somethin'. You're such a child and I'm such a soft-headed fool I couldn't help it, I cal'late?”
“Emeline, s'pose I had got cold. S'pose you found I was sick—what then?”
“Why—why, then I guess likely I'd have seen the doctor on my way through Eastboro. I shall be goin' that way to-morrer when I leave here.”
“When you leave here? What do you mean by that?”