“Nobody you know.”
“You mean it's none of my business?”
“I wouldn't put it that way, honey. I'd just rather not talk about it.”
Kedzie felt rebuffed and afraid. He had spent an evening away from her and had reappeared with scars from a battle he would not describe. She would have been still more terrified if she had known that he had fought as the cavalier of Charity Coe Cheever. She would have been somewhat reassured if she had known that Jim smarted less under the bruises of Cheever's fists than under the rebuke he had had from Charity for his interference in her marital crisis.
Jim was the more in need of Kedzie's devotion for being discarded again by Charity. The warmth in Kedzie's greeting was due to her fear of losing him. But he did not know that. He only knew that she was exceedingly cordial to him, and it was his nature to repay cordiality with usury.
He noted, however, that Kedzie's warmth had an element of anxiety. He asked her what was worrying her, but she would not answer.
At length he made his usual remark. It had become a sort of standing joke for him to say, “When do we marry?”
She always answered, “Give me a little more time.” But to-night when he laughed, “Well, just to get the subject out of the way, when do we marry?” Kedzie did not make her regular answer. Her pretty face was suddenly darkened with pain. She moaned: “Never, I guess. Never, I'm afraid.”
“What's on your mind, Anita?”
She hesitated, but when he repeated his query she took the plunge and told him the truth.