Mrs.Bland was waiting for him on the porch.
She embraced him, and the sudden, violent, unfamiliar contact sent such a shock through him that he all but forgot the deep game he was playing.
She, however, in her agitation did not notice his shrinking.

From her embrace and the tender, incoherent words that flowed with it he gathered that Euchre had acquainted her of his action with Black.
"He might have killed you," she whispered, more clearly; and if Duane had ever heard love in a voice he heard it then.

It softened him.

After all, she was a woman, weak, fated through her nature, unfortunate in her experience of life, doomed to unhappiness and tragedy.

He met her advance so far that he returned the embrace and kissed her.