As they touched his back, their fingers met, and Dyck's covered the girl's.

Their eyes met, too, and the story told by Dyck in that moment was the beginning of a lifetime of experience, comedy, and tragedy.
He thought her fingers were wonderfully soft, warm, and full of life; and she thought that his was the hand of a master-of a master in the field of human effort.

That is, if she thought at all, for Dyck's warm, powerful touch almost hypnotized her.
The old peasant understood, however.

He was standing on his feet now.
He was pale and uncertain.

He lifted up his bag, and threw it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm not needing you any more, thank God!" he said.
"So Heaven's blessing on ye, and I bid ye good-bye.