“I wish I could tell you that I know why you did what you did, or why you think the way you do; but I can’t lie to you, Tom. We can’t ever do that to each other, ever again. I don’t know. Not in my heart. All my life I’ve taken certain things for granted, and I’ve never questioned them. You accept these things when you’re young and you don’t think about them afterwards. They’re too deep, too much a part of you. . . .”

She sat quietly for a moment, then continued: “I don’t believe in integration, Tom. The idea of Ella going to school with Negroes is repulsive to me. It would take all the strength I have to shake hands with one of them on equal terms. When I heard of what had happened to you, do you know who I blamed? Them. And I wished that they would all die for what they’d done to you.” She paused again and chose her words carefully. “But I do believe in you,” she said. “And if this means so much that you’re willing to risk everything, even your own life, for it, then I know it must be right. I can’t doubt that now. It’s right because you believe it’s right. So I’m going to try to understand. I’m going to try very hard, darling. I only ask you to give me a little time. Please. Please give me a little time—”

Tom McDaniel stroked his wife’s face for a long moment, feeling the hot moisture of her tears and feeling a happiness so profound and so real that it smothered the pain. He could bear the pain now. He could bear anything.

“I love you,” he said softly.

“Tell me it isn’t too late.”

“It isn’t,” he said. “It never is.”

“I’ll try. So will Ella. She’s young; maybe it won’t be so hard for her. We’ll send Dad away—he was in that Klan parade. I’ve got to tell you the truth!”

“I knew about it.”

“It was a circus for him. But I don’t think he would hurt anyone, not even— We’ll get him a room at the Union. Mrs. Lambert will look after him. I don’t care what he says. It will be just us, darling, just us together. . . .”

Tom nodded; then a pain worse than any of the others came, and he tried not to make any noise but it was no use. He clenched his hands and moaned.

Ruth got up quickly and walked toward the door. “I’ll call Doctor Hill now,” she said.

Tom said, “All right.”

He waited for the pain to go, then he lay back and thought many things.