“Joe—wait—don't go off like that. Tell me that don't mean anything! Tell me you aren't ever going to see her again!”
“Sure, there's nothing in it.”
“And you won't see her?”
“Why, of course I won't see her. She ain't within five hundred miles of here. I don't know where she is.”
“You 'll promise me that?”
“You don't need to holler, Madge. I can hear you. Somebody's likely to be coming in any minute, and what are they going to think?” He passed out into the back room, and she followed him.
“How soon will you be back, Joe?” She saw that he was putting on his heavy jacket—heavier than was needed to step over to the lumber office.
“Just a minute—that's all.”
“And you won't promise them anything?”
“Why, sure I won't. I wouldn't agree to anything before you'd had a look at it.”