"Now you know what I was thinkin' and why I was sweatin' when we
was eatin' lunch. Just seemed I couldn't hold in much longer from
tellin' you. Why, you know, you looked good to me from the first
moment I spotted you."

"And I think I loved you from that first day, too, Billy. And I
was so proud of you all that day, you were so kind and gentle,
and so strong, and the way the men all respected you and the
girls all wanted you, and the way you fought those three Irishmen
when I was behind the picnic table. I couldn't love or marry a
man I wasn't proud of, and I'm so proud of you, so proud."

"Not half as much as I am right now of myself," he answered, "for
having won you. It's too good to be true. Maybe the alarm
clock'll go off and wake me up in a couple of minutes. Well,
anyway, if it does, I'm goin' to make the best of them two
minutes first. Watch out I don't eat you, I'm that hungry for
you."

He smothered her in an embrace, holding her so tightly to him
that it almost hurt. After what was to her an age-long period of
bliss, his arms relaxed and he seemed to make an effort to draw
himself together.

"An' the clock ain't gone off yet," he whispered against her
cheek. "And it's a dark night, an' there's Fruitvale right ahead,
an' if there ain't King and Prince standin' still in the middle
of the road. I never thought the time'd come when I wouldn't want
to take the ribbons on a fine pair of horses. But this is that