"And to think
those dollars have fed her, and clothed her, a body as fair as an
angel's, and a heart as foul as hell." Then his tone dropped as if he
were afraid of the sound of his own voice. "Say, thank God I kept my
hands off her. If she'd been a man----"
He left his sentence unfinished. In her mind Nan completed it. But
aloud she gave it another ending.
"If she'd been a man I don't guess she'd have been there to have you
lay hands on her."
There was a new note in the girl's tones. But it passed Jeff by.
"No," he said with almost foolish seriousness.
"Say, Jeff," the girl went on gently, a moment later, "aren't you
acting a teeny bit crazy over this? I mean talking of souls foul as
hell. And--an' not sharing the same roof with the woman you've sworn
to love, and--and cherish as long as you both live. She hasn't done a
thing wrong by you since you said--an' meant that. She hasn't done a
thing wrong anyway."
The denial was so gentle yet so decided. Had there been heat in it it
must have been ineffective.
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