"Reckon you don't know what I'll do to you."
"No, Marse Neil. How can this pore child know your mind, suh?"
"I'll have you married to the new girl Miss Smith got. I'll do it next week!"
Adam rolled his eyes heavenward. "An' the Lord only just took my pore gal, suh! You's not in earnest, suh?"
"And if I make you marry the new girl the Lord will have given you a better one."
Adam was deftly cooking Durgan's breakfast, moving about the hut with the light step of pride in the new service.
There was a silence. Durgan had become absorbed in the newspaper.
At last, with another sigh that was cut short ere it had expanded his huge chest, Adam meekly began:
"Marse Neil, suh."