'Maybe I am not so welcome now,'I says.'One minute,'says she.'Let me get used to it.'And she sat down.
"Lin,she is a square-lookin'girl.I'll say that for her.
"I never thought to sit down onced myself;I don't know why,but I kep' a-standing,and I took in that room of hers.She had flowers and things around there,and I seen your picture standing on the table,and I seen your six-shooter right by it--and,oh,Lin,hadn't I knowed your face before ever she did,and that gun you used to let me shoot on Bear Creek?
It took me that sudden!Why,it rushed over me so I spoke right out different from what I'd meant and what I had ready fixed up to say.
"'Why did you do it?'I says to her,while she was a-sitting.'How could you act so,and you a woman?'She just sat,and her sad eyes made me madder at the idea of her.'You have had real sorrow,'says I,'if they report correct.You have knowed your share of death,and misery,and hard work,and all.Great God!ain't there things enough that come to yus uncalled for and natural,but you must run around huntin'up more that was leavin'yus alone and givin'yus a chance?I knowed him onced.Iknowed your Lin McLean.And when that was over,I knowed for the first time how men can be different.'I'm started,Lin,I'm started.Leave me go on,and when I'm through I'll quit.'Some of 'em,anyway,'I says to her,'has hearts and self-respect,and ain't hogs clean through.'
"'I know,"she says,thoughtful-like.
"And at her whispering that way I gets madder.
"'You know!'I says then.'What is it that you know?Do you know that you have hurt a good man's heart?For onced I hurt it myself,though different.And hurts in them kind of hearts stays.Some hearts is that luscious and pasty you can stab 'em and it closes up so yu'd never suspicion the place--but Lin McLean!Nor yet don't yus believe his is the kind that breaks--if any kind does that.You may sit till the gray hairs,and you may wall up your womanhood,but if a man has got manhood like him,he will never sit till the gray hairs.Grief over losin'the best will not stop him from searchin'for a second best after a while.He wants a home,and he has got a right to one,'says I to Miss Jessamine.
'You have not walled up Lin McLean,'I says to her.Wait,Lin,wait.Yus needn't to tell me that's a lie.I know a man thinks he's walled up for a while.""She could have told you it was a lie,"said the cow-puncher.
"She did not.'Let him get a home,'says she.'I want him to be happy.'
'That flash in your eyes talks different,'says I.'Sure enough yus wants him to be happy.Sure enough.But not happy along with Miss Second Best.'
"Lin,she looked at me that piercin'!
"And I goes on,for I was wound away up.'And he will be happy,too,'Isays.'Miss Second Best will have a talk with him about your picture and little "Neighbor,"which he'll not send back to yus,because the hurt in his heart is there.And he will keep 'em out of sight somewheres after his talk with Miss Second Best.'Lin,Lin,I laughed at them words of mine,but I was that wound up I was strange to myself.And she watchin' me that way!And I says to her:'Miss Second Best will not be the crazy thing to think I am any wife of his standing in her way.He will tell her about me.He will tell how onced he thought he was solid married to me till Lusk came back;and she will drop me out of sight along with the rest that went nameless.They was not uncomprehensible to you,was they?
You have learned something by livin',I guess!And Lin--your Lin,not mine,nor never mine in heart for a day so deep as he's yourn right now--he has been gay--gay as any I've knowed.Why,look at that face of his!
Could a boy with a face like that help bein'gay?But that don't touch what's the true Lin deep down.Nor will his deep-down love for you hinder him like it will hinder you.Don't you know men and us is different when it comes to passion?We're all one thing then,but they ain't simple.
They keep along with lots of other things.I can't make yus know,and Iguess it takes a woman like I have been to learn their nature.But you did know he loved you,and you sent him away,and you'll be homeless in yer house when he has done the right thing by himself and found another girl.'
"Lin,all the while I was talkin'all I knowed to her,without knowin' what I'd be sayin'next,for it come that unexpected,she was lookin'at me with them steady eyes.And all she says when I quit was,'If I saw him I would tell him to find a home.'""Didn't she tell yu'she'd made me promise to keep away from seeing her?"asked the cow-puncher Mrs.Lusk laughed."Oh,you innocent!"said she.
"She said if I came she would leave Separ,"muttered McLean,brooding.
Again the large woman laughed out,but more harshly.
"I have kept my promise,"Lin continued.
"Keep it some more.Sit here rotting in your chair till she goes away.Maybe she's gone."
"What's that?"said Lin.But still she only laughed harshly."I could be there by to-morrow night,"he murmured.Then his face softened."She would never do such a thing!"he said,to himself.
He had forgotten the woman at the table.While she had told him matters that concerned him he had listened eagerly.Now she was of no more interest than she had been before her story was begun.She looked at his eyes as he sat thinking and dwelling upon his sweetheart.She looked at him,and a longing welled up into her face.A certain youth and heavy beauty relighted the features.
"You are the same,same Lin everyways,"she said."A woman is too many for you still,Lin!"she whispered.
At her summons he looked up from his revery.
"Lin,I would not have treated you so."
The caress that filled her voice was plain.His look met hers as he sat quite still,his arms on the table.Then he took his turn at laughing.
"You!"he said."At least I've had plenty of education in you.""Lin,Lin,don't talk that brutal to me to-day.If yus knowed how near Icome shooting myself with 'Neighbor.'That would have been funny!
