James doesn't honestly know what about love could make someone a bad person. He knows, of course, that pa was angry at mama 'cause she started to love Mr. Sawyer and trusted him, but his mama was and remains still the best woman he's ever known. Just because she got fooled by a man doesn't change that. So he wonders, maybe, if this woman is the same way. Maybe she just got fooled and... did some bad things because she loved someone so much.

Of course, James also knows that there's a whole lot in the world that he doesn't understand, either.

So he watches quietly, then presses forward to ask, "Can you tell me?"