“I knowed it,” he cried. “I was a fool to a-brung you back. Yer don't belong with us no more.”
“Oh, don't, Jim! don't! Don't make me feel I'm in the way here, too!”
“Here, too?” He looked at her in astonishment. “Yer wasn't in HIS way, was yer, Poll?”
“Yes, Jim.” She saw his look of unbelief and continued hurriedly. “Oh, I tried not to be. I tried so hard. He used to read me verses out of a Bible about my way being his way and my people his people, but it isn't so, Jim. Your way is the way you are born, and your people are the people you are born with, and you can't change it, Jim, no matter how hard you try.”
“YOU was changin' it,” he answered, savagely. “You was gettin' jes' like them people. It was me what took yer away and spoiled it all. You oughtn't to a come. What made yer, after yer said yer wouldn't?”
She did not answer. Strange things were going through the mind of the slow-witted Jim. He braced himself for a difficult question.
“Will yer answer me somethin' straight?” he asked.
“Why, of course,” she said as she met his gaze.
“Do you love the parson, Poll?”
She started.