"Well, I’ll look after _that_ part of it," he cried, beside himself with rage. "No mountain razor-back stripe of man like he is can lord it over me, simply because the scum of creation is backing up his shallow ideas with money. _I’ll_ open his eyes." And Langdon Chester, too angry and disappointed to be ashamed of himself, stood still and allowed her to go on her way. A boy driving a drove of mules turned the bend of the road, and Chester stepped aside, but when they had passed he stood still and watched Virginia as she slowly pursued her way. "Great God, how am I to stand it?" he groaned. "I want her! I want her! I’d work for her. I’d slave for her. I’d do anything under high heaven to be able to call her my own—all my own! My God, isn’t she beautiful? That mouth, that proud poise of head, that neck and breast and form! Were there ever such eyes set in a human head before—such a maddening lip, such a—oh, I can’t stand it! I wasn’t made for defeat like this. Marry her? I’d marry her if it impoverished every member of my family. I’d marry her if the honeymoon ended in my death. At any rate, I would have lived awhile. Does Luke King intend to marry her? Of course he does—he has _seen_ her; but _shall_ he? No, there is one thing certain, and that is that I could never live and know that she was receiving another man’s embraces. I’d kill him if it damned me eternally. And yet I’ve played my last and biggest card. She won’t marry me. She would _once_, but she won’t _now_. Yes, I’m facing a big, serious thing, but I’ll face it. If he tries to get her, the world will simply be too small for both of us to live in together." XXXIII