“Nick,” she said. “What’s happened to you? When did you get like this?”

I said, well, sir, if she meant when had the truth been revealed to me, it had been happenin’ for a long time. Bit by bit, I’d been given a glimpse of it, and now and then I’d think I knew what it was, and now an’ then I was just mystified and scared. I didn’t know from what for, and I’d get the idea that I must be goin’ crazy or something. And then, tonight, at her house, as I stood outside of myself plannin’ things, and then as I’d watched what I’d planned to take place, it was sort of like someone had pulled a trigger in my mind and there was one great big flash of light, and at last I saw the whole truth; at last I saw why things were as they were, and why I was as I was.

“I saw it all, honey,” I said. “I saw the truth and the glory; and it ain’t going to be nearways so bad for you as you might think. Why, a gal like you can make herself a mint in them river towns, just doin’ what you like to do, and I never knew no gal that done it any better. And speakin’ of that, and as long as we won’t be seem’ each other no more, I’ve got no objection to cleaving unto you for five or ten minutes even if you are sort of a fugitive from the law.”

Rose snatched up the alarm clock from the dresser and flang it at me. It smashed against the wall, and what I mean is it ‘really’ smashed.

“Now, god-dang it, Rose,” I said. “How the god-dang heck am I goin’ to wake up in time for church?”

“Church! ‘Church!’” she moaned. “You going to church after—after—! Oh, you son-of-a-bitch! Oh, you sneaky, tricky, lying, mealy-mouthed bastard!”

“Now, there you go again,” I said. “There ain’t no sure use of pretendin’ no longer, ‘cause now I know you’re mad at me.”

She cut loose with another blast of cuss words. Then, she whirled back around to the mirror, and began fussin’ with the dress she was trying on.

“It’s that Amy Mason, isn’t it?” she said. “You’re getting rid of everyone so you can marry her.”

“Well,” I said. “I got to admit I’ve been studyin’ about it.”

“I’ll bet you have! I just bet you have, you doublecrossing skunk!”