"All right, then, Deely," began Dennis. "If that's so, I'm sorry--I started for to say, I'm glad. Only, give me your squar' promise that you won't let him stand in the way no more. I've kept my hand to the helm, and I've waited. I've been waitin' a long time. Sylv won't never be no 'count, if he go on as he ar', and we won't be no 'count, nuther. Only say the word that you'll marry me soon, and that you ain't goin' to let Sylv stand in the way."
"But you said I cared more for him than I do for you," Adela objected, less inclined to make peace than before.
"Well then, you can say you don't," he suggested.
"No, I'll never tell you so!" she cried, her eyes flashing. She laid a hand upon her bosom, which was heaving. "There's somethin' here, Dennie, makes it hard to say it. I can't! I can't!"
What she intended by this was no more than that, if he could not trust her without such assurance, it was impossible for her to speak. But Dennis took it quite otherwise.
"By God, it's true, all an' all!" he stormed. He paused an instant, seemingly dazed, and then went on: "I didn't fairly believe it afore, but a little black devil come allays whisperin' it into my ear, when I was alone, and I couldn't get him out'n my mind. It was Sylv, Sylv, Sylv--my own brother! Oh yes, you can bet I began to see it, then! I done my best, and I've waited; but it's _him_ you love, and now I'm to be throwed over, _I_ am. _I'm_ the one that don't count nary fip. An' now I believe it, you needn't be afeared. I believe it, and I _know_ it."
Adela was stung by his doubt, and, recoiling from it, made her next move in precisely the opposite direction to that which her heart prompted her to take.
"You've done your best?" she echoed, tauntingly. "And what's that? Mighty little. You can't read, like--like Sylv."
"Sylv be d--d!" shouted her lover. "If ye say another word, I'll kill him!"
Adela Reefe stood before him, quite calm and unshaken. However she might fear his violence toward others, she felt no alarm for herself. She knew her power.
"No, you won't kill him, Dennie," she said. "You're not wicked: you can't do that wrong. But I'm goin' to tell you what you'll do. You're to leave me here, and go back by yourself, as I said."