James had no intentions;he could no

James had no intentions;he could not afford to have any;he could not afford to rope another person to his saddle.All he could do was keep his head down and get his work done.Which was why this stirring in him,the prickle of desire in his belly,the twist of jealousy there too,was so very unwelcome indeed.It must be quashed;it did not,after all,mean anything.It was a shame:that was the most that could be said of it.A shame to have to turn his head away,when he would very much prefer to look;a shame that Sarah would of course go and fall in love and it would not be with him.But the sorrow of it came as something of a surprise:he should by now have been perfectly accustomed to doing what he did not want to do,to letting things happen that he did not want to happen.But this?No;he could not reconcile himself to this.The idea worried at him as a dog worries at sheep:he knew it would not kill him to see her happy with someone else;these things were not fatal,no matter what poets and novelists liked to pretend.He might not like it,he might not like it one little bit;it might make his chest constrict with something very similar to fear,but it would not kill him;he knew perfectly well that it would not.