Then Jeff turned to look and see her.  She was lying very still there by him, and the bitter water on her face was biting.  Jeff was so very sorry then, all over and inside him, the way he always was when Melanctha had been deep hurt by him.  “I didn’t mean to be so bad again to you, Melanctha, dear one,” and he was very tender to her.  “I certainly didn’t never mean to go to be so bad to you, Melanctha, darling.  I certainly don’t know, Melanctha, darling, what it is makes me act so to you sometimes, when I certainly ain’t meaning anything like I want to hurt you.  I certainly don’t mean to be so bad, Melanctha, only it comes so quick on me before I know what I am acting to you.  I certainly am all sorry, hard, to be so bad to you, Melanctha, darling.”  “I suppose, Jeff,” said Melanctha, very low and bitter, “I suppose you are always thinking, Jeff, somebody had ought to be ashamed with us two together, and you certainly do think you don’t see any way to it, Jeff, for me to be feeling that way ever, so you certainly don’t see any way to it, only to do it just so often for me.  That certainly is the way always with you, Jeff Campbell, if I understand you right the way you are always acting to me.  That certainly is right the way I am saying it to you now, Jeff Campbell.  You certainly didn’t anyway trust me now no more, did you, when you just acted so bad to me.  I certainly am right the way I say it Jeff now to you.  I certainly am right when I ask you for it now, to tell me what I ask you, about not trusting me more then again, Jeff, just like you never really knew me.  You certainly never did trust me just then, Jeff, you hear me?” “Yes, Melanctha,” Jeff answered slowly.  Melanctha paused.  “I guess I certainly never can forgive you this time, Jeff Campbell,” she said firmly.  Jeff paused too, and thought a little.  “I certainly am afraid you never can no more now again, Melanctha,” he said sadly.

They lay there very quiet now a long time, each one thinking very hard on their own trouble.  At last Jeff began again to tell Melanctha what it was he was always thinking with her.  “I certainly do know, Melanctha, you certainly now don’t want any more to be hearing me just talking, but you see, Melanctha, really, it’s just like this way always with me.  You see, Melanctha, its like this way now all the time with me.  You remember, Melanctha, what I was once telling to you, when I didn’t know you very long together, about how I certainly never did know more than just two kinds of ways of living, one way the way it is good to be in families and the other kind of way, like animals are all the time just with each other, and how I didn’t ever like that last kind of way much for any of the colored people.  You see Melanctha, it’s like this way with me.  I got a new feeling now, you been teaching to me, just like I told you once, just like a new religion to me, and I see perhaps what really loving is like, like really having everything together,