She smiled, keeping her head and her courage high without apparent effort:
“It’s another job for you,” she said lightly. “Will you be kind enough to put this house on your list?”
“If you wish.”
“Thank you, Jim, I do indeed. And the sooner you can sell it for me the better.”
He said: “And the sooner you marry me the better, Palla.”
At that she flushed crimson and made a quick gesture as though to check him; but he went on: “I heard what you said to those filthy swine to-night. It was the pluckiest, most splendid thing I ever heard and saw. And I have seen battles. Some. But I never before saw a woman take her life in her hands and go all alone into a cage of the same dangerous, rabid beasts that had slain a friend of hers within the week, and find courage to face them and tell them they were beasts!––and more than that!––find courage to confess her own mistakes––humble herself––acknowledge what she had abjured––bear witness to the God whom once she believed abandoned her!”
She strove to open her lips in protest––lifted her disconcerted eyes to his––shrank away a little as his hand fell over hers.
“I’ve never faltered,” he said. “It damned near killed me.... But I’d have gone on loving you, Palla, all my life. There never could have been anybody except you. There was never anybody before you. Usually there has been in a man’s life. There never was in mine. There never will be.”
His firm hand closed on hers.