And as it bound them flesh to flesh,
closer and closer, it wedded them in one memory, one consolation and
one soul.
* * * * *
One day she had followed him into the stable, and on the window-sill,
among all the cobwebs where it had been put away and forgotten, she
found the little bottle of chlorodyne.
She took it up, and Jim scolded her gently as if she had been a child.
"Yore lil haands is always maddlin'. Yo' put thot down."
"What is it?"
"It's poison, is thot. There's enoof there t' kill a maan. Yo' put it
down whan I tall yo'."
She put it down obediently in its place on the window-sill among the
cobwebs.
He made a nest for her of clean hay, where she sat and watched him
as he gave Daisy her feed of corn. She watched every movement of him,
every gesture, thoughtful and intent.
"I can't think, Jim, why I ever was afraid of you. _Was_ I afraid of
you?"
Greatorex grinned.
"Yo' used t' saay yo' were."
"How silly of me. And I used to be afraid of Maggie."
"_I_'ve been afraaid of Maaggie afore now. She's got a roough side t'
'er toongue and she can use it. But she'll nat use it on yo'. Yo've
naw call to be afraaid ef annybody. There isn't woon would hoort a lil
thing like yo'."
"They say things about me. I know they do."
"And yo' dawn't keer what they saay, do yo'?"
"I don't care a rap. But I think it's cruel of them, all the same."
"But yo're happy enoof, aren't yo'--all the same?"
"I'm very happy.
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