“You are lying!  It’s not true that——­It’s not true, and if it were, you would have no right to speak like this.”

“Don’t talk foolish.  I know.  Ain’t I heard from a fellow dot live right here in town how you been acting wit’ de boy?  I know what you done!  Walking wit’ him in de country!  Hiding in de woods wit’ him!  Yes and I guess you talk about religion in de woods!  Sure!  Women like you—­you’re worse dan street-walkers!  Rich women like you, wit’ fine husbands and no decent work to do—­and me, look at my hands, look how I work, look at those hands!  But you, oh God no, you mustn’t work, you’re too fine to do decent work.  You got to play wit’ young fellows, younger as you are, laughing and rolling around and acting like de animals!  You let my son alone, d’ you hear?” He was shaking his fist in her face.  She could smell the manure and sweat.  “It ain’t no use talkin’ to women like you.  Get no trut’ out of you.  But next time I go by your husband!”

He was marching into the hall.  Carol flung herself on him, her clenching hand on his hayseed-dusty shoulder.  “You horrible old man, you’ve always tried to turn Erik into a slave, to fatten your pocketbook!  You’ve sneered at him, and overworked him, and probably you’ve succeeded in preventing his ever rising above your muck-heap!  And now because you can’t drag him back, you come here to vent——­Go tell my husband, go tell him, and don’t blame me when he kills you, when my husband kills you—­he will kill you——­”

The man grunted, looked at her impassively, said one word, and walked out.

She heard the word very plainly.

She did not quite reach the couch.  Her knees gave way, she pitched forward.  She heard her mind saying, “You haven’t fainted.  This is ridiculous.  You’re simply dramatizing yourself.  Get up.”  But she could not move.  When Kennicott arrived she was lying on the couch.  His step quickened.  “What’s happened, Carrie?  You haven’t got a bit of blood in your face.”

She clutched his arm.  “You’ve got to be sweet to me, and kind!  I’m going to California—­mountains, sea.  Please don’t argue about it, because I’m going.”

Quietly, “All right.  We’ll go.  You and I. Leave the kid here with Aunt Bessie.”

“Now!”

“Well yes, just as soon as we can get away.  Now don’t talk any more.  Just imagine you’ve already started.”  He smoothed her hair, and not till after supper did he continue:  “I meant it about California.  But I think we better wait three weeks or so, till I get hold of some young fellow released from the medical corps to take my practice.  And if people are gossiping, you don’t want to give them a chance by running away.  Can you stand it and face ’em for three weeks or so?”

“Yes,” she said emptily.

IV