She felt her heart grow sick. If she had been happy for four hours, why, in God's name, had they not passed like four hours instead of like four minutes?
"Ben, I swear I didn't know. I was up to no harm, I promise you. Please, please—oh please let me in!"
"Not I—at one o'clock o' the marnun—after you've bin all night wud a——"
"Ben, I swear I'm your true wife."
She fell against the wall, and her hair, disordered by embraces, suddenly streamed over her shoulders. The sight of it made Reuben wild.
"Git off—before I täake my gun and shoot you."
"Oh, Ben!..."
"Höald your false tongue. You're no wife o' mine from this day forrard. I wöan't be cuckolded in my own house."
His face was swollen, his eyes rolled—he looked almost as if he had been drinking.