MORGAN. Who? You don't mean ...
MARY. I do too—an' ...
MORGAN. God a'mighty, my ... it can't be so.
[Mary goes to the window and holds the dress in front of her.
MARY. It is, too. Mr. Hugh sent it to me. [Morgan groans.] He told me to-day he's sorry for me. I knowed he'd remember me; I knowed it. An', after all, I ain't been workin' the whole year for nothin'. He's got a heart if nobody else ain't.
MORGAN. What in the devil! I wonder ... Lord!
[Aunt Candace still looks in the fire. For a moment Morgan stands lost in abstraction, then he speaks fiercely.
MORGAN. Mary, put them damned things up. Put 'em up, I say. [He goes toward her. She shrinks back; holding the dress to her. He snatches it from her and throws it on the bed, then he pushes her out in the middle of the floor. She wipes the tears from her eyes with her apron.] You listen here, gal. We're goin' to settle it right here and now, once and for all. You're goin' to marry Jim?
MARY. Mr. Morgan ... oh ... I can't marry him. I can't! I won't! Let me stay. Don't drive her out; she'll die. I'll work, I'll hoe an' wash, day an' night. I'll do anything, I'll ...
MORGAN. [Fiercely.] You've tole me that a thousand times, an' you've got to say one or the other right now. Right now! Do you hear! Marry Jim, I tell you, and it'll be all right. He's smart and he'll take care of you ...