Page:Hell-Bent fer Heaven (Hughes 1924).pdf/92

78 I looked across the aisle an’ seen you a-settin’ thar a-singin’! An’ sompen hot swep’ over me jist like fire! At first I thought it ’us Satan a-temptin’ me, an’ I tried to look t’other way. I don’t never look at the women’s side in the meetin’-house. Anybody ’at knows me ’ll tell you that. But I couldn’t look no other way then. Some power greater an’ stronger ’n me seemed to have holt o’ my neck, a-twistin’ it around toward you. I ’us absolutely helpless, jist as helpless as a child! But I didn’t know what it wus till they got to the last verse. You know how it goes:

It ’us then that the scales dropped from my eyes! An’ I seen the truth! An’ when I did, everything in the whole world ’us changed fer me! I loved everybody an’ everything! An’ I us so happy I felt jist like I ’us a-floatin’ away on a ocean o’ joy!

If you felt like that you’d better let well-enough alone. I couldn’t make you no-happier by marryin’ you.

Yes, you could, Jude! [With a mystical suggestion] The half has never been told!