American men don't beat their wives.
If they did they would be sent to prison. I should think you'd give him
up--"
Lolla's dark eyes flamed for a moment, but then she smiled, as if she
had remembered that Bessie, not being a gypsy, could not be expected to
understand the gypsy ways.
"He is a good man," she said. "He will always see that I have enough to
eat, and pretty things to wear. And if he beats me, it will be because I
have been wicked, and deserve to be beaten. When I am his wife he will
be like my father; if I am bad he will punish me. Is it not so among
your people?"
Bessie struggled with a laugh at the thought of the only married couple
she had ever known at all well: Paw and Maw Hoover. The idea that Paw
Hoover, the mildest and most inoffensive of men, might ever beat his
wife would have made anyone who knew that couple laugh.
Instead of turning when they reached the trail which Bessie had followed
after her descent from the rocks, Lolla led the way straight on.
"Are you sure you know where you are going, Lolla!" asked Bessie.
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