Time has stood still in this Garden of Eden. Perry
had been so proud of those photographs. Teddy made no reference to the mystery of
that visionin the London station.
I must tell you of a strange thing that has
happened, he wrote.
The gods might have picked strawberries on high
Olympuswithout injuring their dignity. Ive never forgivenHenry IV for turning
Catholic.
She willnever talk of anything in the years before
we came to Blair Water. Saying to every one just what hethought shed like to
hear.
Emily put the maltreated picture away in a drawer
of her desk.
How ugly somemotives look when you put them into
words.
It was for her a dinner of bitter herbsand she
never remembered anything Gus Rankin said to her. I must tell you of a strange thing
that has happened, he wrote. Ambition was, for the time at least,
forgotten.
Its about the only chance I have of being alone for
a fewminutes. He dropped his poor grey face in his hands.
She knew as she had known at first that it
wasTeddys whistle. Itseems very idle to say Im bitterly sorry for all
this.
But sometimes anguish and heartbreak forbid us the
leave.
It was harder to understand just whyIlse could care
so much and so incurably for Perry Miller.
Emily found herselfthinking what a nice, pleasant,
friendly thing death would be.
And what star ofdestiny was ever brighter and more
alluring than Vega of the Lyre.
Its odd for a son to know as little of his mothers
life as I do. How absurd torecall that she had once thought him Prince Charming! So
I had tolay down my pen and go out to the kitchen garden.
Theyears have not made it any easier for her. I
caught Cousin Jimmy in tears over the brutal necessity.
They might have been children togetheragain. Ive
always had a wild hope that it might happen.
Then I prowled about the hill fields tilllong after
dark, studying the stars with my field-glass.