E-text prepared by David Garcia, David T. Jones,
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| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Kentuckiana Digital Library. See http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&idno=b92-225-31182911&view=toc |
| CONTENTS | ||
| PAGE | ||
| PART I | Mary Louise | 1 |
| PART II | Myrtle | 143 |
| PART III | Bloomfield | 249 |
Thefront gate screaked, a slow, timid, almost furtive sort of screak, andthen banged suddenly shut as though it despaired of furtherconcealment. Mary Louise gathered her sewing to her, rose to her feet,and looked out. It was raining. Through the glass upper half of thedoor that opened from the sitting room upon the side porch she couldsee the swelling tendrils of the vines that crawled about the trellis,heavy and beady with the gathering moisture. It was one of those cold,drizzly, early April rains that dares you by its seeming futility tocome forth and do weaponless battle and then sends you backdiscomfited and drenched. A woman was coming up the walk bent in ahuddle over a bundle which she carried in her arms. Mary Louise gazedsearchingly for a moment and then, as the figure would have passed thedoor, on around to the rear of the house, stepped out on the porch andcalled:
"Zenie! Zenie! Come in this way. There's nobody around there."
Zenie raised her head in mute surprise and then slowly obeyed. Sheshuffled across the porch, and at the door, which Mary Louise heldopen for her, paused and looked about her in indecision. She was abuxom creature,