Do you think I could
marry a girl who thinks of my mother as something which she must
try to forgive? Do you think I could go to that girl in there
and--and take her in my arms--and love her, knowing that she
feels as she does? She can't even forgive me for killing that
beast!
"She's a beautiful thing--I wanted to have her for my own. I'm a
man. I've a healthy man's hunger for a beautiful woman, but I've
a healthy man's pride as well." He patted the smooth cheek of
the only woman he had ever known as a mother, and stared at the
rough rock wall oozing moisture that drip-dripped to the pool
below.
"I did think I'd go away for awhile," he said after a minute
spent in sober thinking. "But I never dodged yet, and I never
ran. I'm going to stay and see the thing through, now. I don't
know--" he hesitated and then went on. "It may not last; I may
have to suffer after awhile, but standing out there, that day,
listening to her carrying on, kind of--oh, I can't explain it.
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