But she broke in, “What makes it so hard to bear is knowin’ there’s so many wonderful things in the world, and ye can never have them! ’Tis as if ye had to see them through a pane of glass, like in the window of a store. Just think, Joe Smith--once, in a church in Sheridan, I heard a lady sing beautiful music; once in my whole lifetime! Can ye guess what it meant to me?” “Yes, Mary, I can.” “But I had that all out with meself--years ago. I knew the price a workin’ girl has to pay for such things, and I said, I’ll not let meself think about them. I’ve hated this place, I’ve wanted to get away--but there’s only one way to go, to let some man take ye! So I’ve stayed; I’ve kept straight, Joe. I want ye to believe that.” “Of course, Mary!” “No! It’s not been ‘of course’! It means ye have to fight with temptations. It’s many a time I’ve looked at Jeff Cotton, and thought about the things I need! And I’ve done without! But now comes the thing a woman wants more than all the other things in the world!” She paused, but only for a moment. “They tell ye to love a man of your own class. Me old mother said that to me, before she died. But suppose ye didn’t happen to? Suppose ye’d stopped and thought what it meant, havin’ one baby after another, till ye’re worn out and drop--like me old mother did? Suppose ye knew good manners when ye see them--ye knew interestin’ talk when ye heard it!” She clasped her hands suddenly before her, exclaiming, “Ah, ’tis something different ye are, Joe--so different from anything around here! The way ye talk, the way ye move, the gay look in your eyes! No miner ever had that happy look, Joe; me heart stops beatin’ almost when ye look at me!” She stopped with a sharp catching of her breath, and he saw that she was struggling for self-control. After a moment she exclaimed, defiantly: “But they’d tell ye, be careful, ye daren’t love that kind of man; ye’d only have your heart broken!” There was silence. For this problem the amateur sociologist had no solution at hand--whether for the abstract question, or for its concrete application! SECTION 31. Mary forced herself to go on. “This is how I’ve worked it out, Joe! I said to meself, ‘Ye love this man; and it’s his _love_ ye want--nothin’ else! If he’s got a place in the world, ye’d only hold him back--and ye’d not want to do that. Ye don’t want his name, or his friends, or any of those things--ye want _him_!’ Have ye ever heard of such a thing as that?” Her cheeks were flaming, but she continued to meet his gaze. “Yes, I’ve heard of it,” he answered, in a low voice. “What would ye say to it? Is it honest? The Reverend Spragg would say ’twas the devil, no doubt; Father O’Gorman, down in Pedro, would call it mortal sin; and maybe they know--but I don’t! I only know I can’t stand it any more!”