She did not speak;
merely stood with her fingers still gripping the handle of the door as if
she were ready to dart away at the first alarm. A wave of pain went over
the face of Vic Gregg and remained looking at her out of his eyes, for all
that his single-track, concentrated mind could perceive in her was the
thing he took for fear.
"Miss Neal," he said. His voice shook, straightened out again. He made her
think of one of her big school boys who had forgotten his lesson and now
stood cudgeling his memory and dreading that terrible nightmare of "staying
after school." She had a wild desire to laugh.
"Miss Neal, I ain't here to try to take up things that can't be took up
ag'in." Apparently he had prepared the speech carefully, and now he went on
with more ease: "I'm leavin' these here parts for some place unknown.
Before I go I jest want to say I know I was wrong from the beginnin'. All I
want to say is that I was jest all sort of tied up in a knot inside and
when I seen you with him--" He stopped. "I hope you marry some gent that's
worth you, only they ain't any such.
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