as I have, ever since the beginning—and I didn't guess. She does—I know it now. Oh, I know it now! If she didn't care, I could just stay on and love her and try not to bother her, and it would be all right, because I would be the only one hurt. But she does care—and I am nobody, a man without a father—and it isn't right for me to go to her and say, 'Phylis, will you take for your husband a man that is handicapped like that?' Why, her people are everything; they've done everything for me, and I think they like me; but if they knew!—even if she said it didn't make any difference—and, bless her! that's what she would say—they couldn't be expected to hear of it. And I'm hanged if I'd have the face to go against them—considerin' how kind they've been to me. If they say no, it's got to be no—no matter what I say, no matter what she says. The best thing for me to do is to go to her and say, 'Phylis, I've tried to be a mountain, but I'm only a rolling stone—no good to anybody—and I've got the call and I want out,
