Page:Hell-Bent fer Heaven (Hughes 1924).pdf/99

Rh

That’s what you’ve been a-sayin’,

Well, you are a-goin’ ter marry me, ain’t you?

I wus mebbe—before. But now—I dunno.

Now see here, Jude! If this trouble with Andy is a-standin’ between us we might as well settle it right now.

[With a flare of passion]

You got no right to make me take sides ag’in’ my own flesh an’ blood!

I ain’t a-goin’ to try to make you. That’s sompen you’ll have to decide fer yourself. The Bible says a man an’ woman ought to leave their daddy an’ mammy an’ all the rest o’ their kin an’ stick together in spite o’ the devil—at least, that’s the sense of it. I don’t purtend to pattern after Scripture like Rufe, but that part allus hit me as bein’ jist about right. An’ if you don’t feel the same way, I want to know it now.