She laid the little handful of gold on the table beside
the bed and rose.
“Don’t go,” said Terry, when he
could speak. “Don’t go, Kate!
I’m not that low. I can’t take your
money!”
She stood by the bed and stamped lightly. “Are
you going to be a fool about this, too?”
“Your father offered to give me back all the
money I’d won. I can’t do it, Kate.”
He could see her grow angry, beautifully angry.
“Is they no difference between Kate Pollard
and Joe Pollard?”
Something leaped into his throat. He wanted to
tell her in a thousand ways just how vast that difference
was.
“Man, you’d make a saint swear, and I
ain’t a saint by some miles. You take that
money and pay Dad, and get on your way. This ain’t
no place for you, Terry Hollis.”
“I—” he began.
She broke in: “Don’t say it.
You’ll have me mad in a minute. Don’t
say it.”
“I have to. I can’t take money from
you.”
“Then take a loan.”
He shook his head.
“Ain’t I good enough to even loan you
money?” she cried fiercely.
The shaft of moonlight had poured past her feet; she
stood in a pool of it.
“Good enough?” said Terry. “Good
enough?” Something that had been accumulating
in him now swelled to bursting, flooded from his heart
to his throat. He hardly knew his own voice,
it was so transformed with sudden emotion.
“There’s more good in you than in any
man or woman I’ve ever known.”
“Terry, are you trying to make me feel foolish?”
“I mean it—and it’s true.
You’re kinder, more gentle—”
“Gentle? Me? Oh, Terry!”
But she sat down on the bed, and she listened to him
with her face raised, as though music were falling
on her, a thing barely heard at a perilous distance.
“They’ve told you other things, but they
don’t know. I know, Kate. The moment
I saw you I knew, and it stopped my heart for a beat—the
knowing of it. That you’re beautiful—and
true as steel; that you’re worthy of honor—and
that I honor you with all my heart. That I love
your kindness, your frankness, your beautiful willingness
to help people, Kate. I’ve lived with a
woman who taught me what was true. You’ve
taught me what’s glorious and worth living for.
Do you understand, Kate?”
And no answer; but a change in her face that stopped
him.
“I shouldn’t of come,” she whispered
at length, “and I—I shouldn’t
have let you—talk the way you’ve
done. But, oh, Terry—when you come
to forget what you’ve said—don’t
forget it all the way—keep some of the
things—tucked away in you—somewhere—”
She rose from the bed and slipped across the white
brilliance of the shaft of moonlight. It made
a red-gold fire of her hair. Then she flickered
into the shadow. Then she was swallowed by the
darkness.
