Her rooming house didn't permit men on the premises, which she made a point of telling her mother. Henry Schwartz, who had always treated her more res...ectfully than the other salesmen had, asked her out to dinner one evening. She felt quite the sophisticate eating "dinner" an hour after her family ate "supper." Henry was polite and entertaining during dinner and while walking her back."Mrs. O'Malley doesn't allow men inside," she said when they got to the rooming house door."I know," said. ’ Fuck, Tom thought, that might be the hottest thing I’ve ever heard. And she was so nonchalant about it, he added. Once more, the road noise was the only sound, as the words settled in, and they both contemplated what had been said. After a few miles, Tom spoke again. ‘It seems fantastic.’ ‘What does?’ ‘That you’ll do whatever I want.’ He hesitated, then added, ‘Too fantastic. Like it can’t be true. I know I keep saying that. But it’s hard to believe.’ ‘Well, it’s true. You’ll just have to. I tried not thinking about you, but of course you make that impossible. I’m tired of worrying about how I should feel. I just want to be free.”“Why would you think about me?” he asked.She shot him a look.“Don’t fish for compliments. Most of it was negative, buster. But it’s hard to ignore a man who keeps talking about how beautiful you are - and means it - but who never makes a move on you. And then you remind yourself that he’s old, and a beast, and a slave driver, but then he does something. She wuz disappointed when I sent her to Hand Springs an' thought her fate wuz to wed a man she could never love. When I retrieved Philomena an' her, Beth said she never wanted to be apart from me again however things turned out an' she’d die if I sent her away again. She also said she could never be jealous of the other wives ‘cuz she felt so much love from all of them. Well, a body couldn’t feel much more loved than that. I felt like the luckiest man in all of Texas cuz I had so many lovin’.