Lonesome Dove

"She married me," July said. He felt he had to insist on that point.

"Well, I married Dee once, myself," Je

July just looked at her sadly. Je

"You're right good-looking," she said. "I expect that explains it. If I were you I'd start getting over it."

"I got to find her," July said. "I got to tell her about little Joe. He got killed on the Canadian."

"She oughtn't to had him," Je

July drank two more whiskeys but had little more to say.

"Well, the bar's getting rich but I ain't," Je

It seemed to July that he was not so much sitting in the chair as floating in it. The world seemed kind of watery to him, but it was all right because he was easily able to float.

Je

The way she giggled made July feel happy suddenly. He had not heard a woman giggle in a long time. Ellie never giggled. So he got up and followed Je

Je

"I guess we ought to rope him and drag him to the graveyard," one said. "He looks dead to me."

"Hell, I wish all I had to do was lay on them stairs and vomit," the other cowboy said. "It beats loading them longhorns."

July lay face down for a long time. The heaves finally diminished, but from time to time he raised his head and spat over the edge, to clear his throat. It was nearly sundown before he felt like sitting up, and then it was only to sit with his back against the building. He was high enough that he could see over the main street and the cattle pens and west to where the sun was setting, far off on the plain. It was setting behind a large herd of cattle being held a mile or two from town. There were thousands of cattle, but only a few cowboys holding them-he could see the other cowboys racing for town. The dust their ru

July sat where he was until the afterglow was just a pale line on the western horizon. The white moon shone on the railroad ties that snaked out of town to the east. He felt too weak to stand up, and he sat listening to the sounds of laughter that came from the saloon behind him.

When he finally stood up he was indecisive. He didn't know if he should go in and thank Je

He decided, though, that politeness required him to at least say goodbye to Je

When Je

"No," July said.

Je

"What about the fun?" she said. "You lost out this afternoon."

"Oh," July said, "I'm not much fun."

"I guess you wouldn't be, after vomiting up your stomach," Je

"It's what I did with Ellie," July said. Meeting her friend Je

Je

"Ellie was tired of this business," she said. "It was the buffalo hunters made her decide to quit. I guess you just come along at the right time."

"Yes," July said.

They were silent, looking at one another, Je

"Don't you want to quit?" he asked.

"Why, are you going to fall in love with me too?" Je

July knew he could if he wasn't careful. He was so lonely, and he didn't have much control.

"Don't you want to quit?" he asked again.

Je

She thought a moment. "I couldn't sit around in a house all day," she said. "If someone was ever to marry me I expect I'd run off, too. The time I get blue is the winter-there ain't no people coming in."

July thought of Ellie, sitting in the cabin loft all day, dangling her legs-no people came in at all except him and Joe, and Roscoe once in a while when they caught a catfish. Hearing Je

"You ought to go on back home," Je

July feared it wouldn't, but he didn't want to go back. He just stood there. Something in his ma

"I got to go," she said. "If you ever do find Ellie, tell her I still got that blue dress she gave me. If she ever wants it back she'll have to write."

July nodded. Je

July felt sad when she left. He had the feeling that an opportunity had been missed, though he didn't know what kind of opportunity. The streets were full of cowboys going from one saloon to the next. There were horses tied to every hitch rail.