A forearm half raised she stepped back from him, settling her weight to one foot. He breathed heavily twice to relieve the congestion that strained his voice.
"When I stood down there th' other night,"--gesturing toward the entrance of the hotel--"an' looked into the darkness an' saw your face there, it was like an angel ... or somethin'. It caught me in th' throat, it made my knees shake--an' they've never shook from fear or anythin' else in my life. When we set in that next room washin' out that wound, bindin' it up, I didn't give a damn if that man lived or died--"
"Oh!" she cried, and drew away another step, but he followed close, bound that she should hear, should understand.
"--If he lived or died," he repeated. "I wanted to be near you, to watch your fingers, to see th' move of your shoulders, to look at th'--th' pink of your neck through your waist, to see your lips an' your eyes an' your hair ... ma'am. I didn't give a damn about that man. It was you; your strangeness, your nerve, your sand, I wanted to see, to know about ... an' your looks. Then you said, you said he was your husband an' for a minute I wanted him to die, I did! That was a black minute, ma'am; things went round, I didn't know what was happenin'. Then, I come out of it and I realized; realized what kind of a woman you are, if you'd come clear from th' East on th' trail of a ... a ... your husband, an' speak of him as a cripple an' be as ... as wrought up over him as you was--
"I thought then, like a fool I was, that I'd be doin' somethin' fine if I took that ... that ... your husband an' made a man of him an' sent him back to you, a man!"
He gulped and breathed and his hands fell to his sides. He moved back an awkward pace.
"Well, it would,"--averting his face. The resonance had gone from his voice. "It would have been fine. It ... it _will_ be fine,"--in a whisper.
"But I can't stand you around," he muttered, the tone rallying some of its strength. "I can't; I can't! I couldn't have you in th' same room in my sight. I'd keep thinkin' what he is an' what you are; comparin' you. It'd tear my heart out!
"Ma'am don't think I ain't tried to fight against this!" extending his palms pleadingly. "I've thought about you every minute since I first saw you down there 'n th' hallway. I've lied to myself, I've tried to make myself think different but I can't! I can't help it, ma'am ... an' I don't know as I would if I could, 'cause it's somethin' I never knew could be before!"