"
"And whin you let him spind money you know you'll never get back,
and loaf while you do his work, and when you lie mountain high,
times without number, who is it for?"
Then fifteen years' restraint slid from Dannie like a cloak, and
in the torture of his soul his slow tongue outran all its
previous history.
"Ye!" he shouted. "It's fra Jimmy, too, but ye first. Always ye
first!" Mary began to tremble. Her white cheeks burned red. Her
figure straightened, and her hands clenched.
"On the cross! Will you swear it?" she cried.
"On the sacred body of Jesus Himself, if I could face Him,"
answered Dannie. "anything! Everything is fra ye first, Mary!"
"Then why?" she panted between gasps for breath. "Tell me why? If
you have cared for me enough to stay here all these years and see
that I had the bist tratemint you could get for me, why didn't
you care for me enough more to save me this? Oh, Dannie, tell me
why?"
And then she shook with strangled sobs until she scarce could
stand alone. Dannie Macnoun cleared the space between them and
took her in his arms. Her trembling hands clung to him, her head
dropped on his breast, and the perfume of her hair in his
nostrils drove him mad. Then the tense bulk of her body struck
against him, and horror filled his soul.
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