The big negress stood for a long moment looking at him. Her gaze took in the straight legs with their springing thighs straining the fabric of the cotton pants, the slender waist, and the almost unbelievable outward flare of the chest to the high, straight span of the shoulders.
A look of deep sadness grew in her somber face.
“Wid uh body like dat!” she said at last, “why yuh is goin’ aroun’ huntin’ fuh deat’?”
Crown laughed uneasily, stepped into the room, and sat at a table. He placed his elbows upon it, hunched his shoulders forward with a writhing of muscle beneath the shirt, then dropped his chin in his hands, and regarded the woman.
“I know dese hyuh niggers,” he replied. “Dey is a decent lot. Dey wouldn’t gib no nigger away tuh de w’ite folks.”
“Dat de Gawd’ trut’. Only dey is odder way ob settlin’ up er debt.”
“Serena?” he asked, with a sidelong look, and a laugh. “Dat sister gots de fear ob Gawd in she heart. I ain’t ’fraid none ob she.”
After a moment of silence he asked abruptly:
“Yes; an’ she a happy, decent ’oman. Yuh bes’ leabe she alone.”
“Fer Gawd’ sake! Wut yuh tink I come tuh dis damn town fuh? I ain’t jus’ huntin’ fuh deat’! I atter my ’oman.”
Maria placed her hands on the table opposite the man and bent over to look into his face.
“’Oman is all berry much de same,” she said in a low, persuasive voice. “Dey comes an’ dey goes. One sattify a man quick as annuduh. Dey is lots ob bettuh lookin’ gal dan Bess. She fix fuh life now wid dat boy. I ax yuh go an’ lef she. Gib she uh chance.”
“It tek long time tuh learn one ’oman,” he said slowly. “Me an’ Bess done fight dat all out dese fibe year gone.”
“Yuh ain’t goin’ leabe she den?” There was an unusual note of pleading in the heavy voice.
After a moment he arose and turned to her.
“I gots tuh go out now. I ain’t sho’ wedder I goin’ away tuhnight or wait fuh tuhmorruh night. I goin’ look aroun’ an’ see how de lan’ lay; but I’ll be seein’ yuh agin befo’ I goes.”
Maria regarded him for a long moment; the look of sadness in her face deepened to a heavy melancholy; but she said nothing.
Crown started for the street with his long, swaggering stride. The big woman watched him until he turned to the north at the entrance and passed from view. Then she locked the door and, with a deep sigh, walked to her own room.