but he was experiencing some strange emotions, and one of
them was a novel respect for his wife. All he said was:
"'Taint no use talking. I won't never ask him to take
me back, once."

"Well, you aint asking of him. _I_ ask him. I try to git
you back, once!"

"I tell you, it aint no use; I know the boss, he aint going
to be letting womans talk him over; no, he's a good man,
he knows how to work his business himself!"

"But would you promise me, Kurt?"

Lieders's eyes blurred with a mild and dreamy mist;
he sighed softly. "Thekla, you can't see how it is.
It is like you are tied up, if I don't can do that; if I can
then it is always that I am free, free to go, free to stay.
And for you, Thekla, it is the same."

Thekla's mild eyes flashed. "I don't believe you would like it
so you wake up in the morning and find ME hanging up in the kitchen
by the clothes-line!"

Lieders had the air of one considering deeply.
Then he gave Thekla one of the surprises of her life;
he rose from his chair, he walked in his shuffling,
unheeled slippers across the room to where the old woman sat;
he put one arm on the back of the chair and stiffly bent
over her and kissed her.