n't mean no harm to
you. I swear, neither Wid nor me ever did dream that a woman like
you'd come out here--I never knew such a woman as you was in the whole
_world_. I just didn't _know_--that was all. You won't blame me too
much fer gettin' you here into this awful place, will you?"

"No, I understand," said she gently. "I think I know more about you
now than I did at first."

"I ain't much to know, ma'am. But you--why, if I studied all my life,
I wouldn't begin to know you hardly none at all." She could not doubt
the reverence of his tone, could not miss the sweetness of it. No; nor
the sureness of the anchorage that it offered.

"If this is the way you want it," he went on, "I'll promise you never
to bother you, no way in the world. I'll be on the square with you, so
help me God! I'll take care of you the best way I can, so help me God!
I'll work, I'll do the best I can fer you; so help me God!"

"And I promise to be faithful to you, Sim Gage," said she, using his
common name unconsciously now. "I swear to be true to you, and to help
you all I can, every way I can. I'll do my duty--my _duty_. Do you
understand?"

She was pale again by now, and trembling all through her body. Her
hands trembled on the blankets. It was a woman's pledge she was
giving. And no man's hands or lips touched hers. It was terrible. It
was terrible, but had it not been thus she could not have endured it.
She must wait.

"I understand a heap of things I can't say nothing about, ma'am," said
Sim Gage. "I'm that sort of man, that can't talk very much. But I
understand a heap more'n I'm going to try to say. Sometimes it's that
way."

"Sometimes it's that way," said Mary Warren, "yes. Then that's our
promise!"

"Yes, it's a promise, so fer as I'm concerned," said Sim Gage.

"Then there isn't much left," said she after a time, her throat
fluttering. She patted his great hand bravely as it lay upon the
blankets, afraid to touch her own. "The rest will be--I think the rest
will be easier than this."

"A heap easier," said he. "I dreaded this more'n I would to be shot.
I wanted to do the right thing, but I didn't know what _was_ right.
Won't you _say_ you knowed I wanted to do right all the time, and that
I just didn't _know_? Can't you see that I'm sorry I made you marry
me, because it wasn't no way right? Can't you see it's only just to
get you some sort of a home?"

"I said _yes_, Sim Gage," said Mary Warren.