unspeakable.”
“No,” said Arabella, “I do not think I can remember that I ever felt anything like that.”
“It is unholy because it is heretic. It is foul. It is abominable to need something so badly that you cannot picture living without it. It is a contradiction to the condition of mankind.”
“I have always lived very well, you see,” Arabella said. “My mother has made a particular point of seeing that I lacked for nothing.”
“I dread that it may be only a longing for annihilation. No person who has seen his own face plain can want to live longer.”
“Well, I can’t understand that . I mean, I can understand a person’s not liking his own face, but people can’t help their faces, after all. I know I always feel very sorry for girls who are not nice-looking. And I’m sure I think you’ve got a very pleasant face.”
“The sight of one’s own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward—that’s why they’ve been given bodies, to hide their souls.”
“Of course, I was very lucky, and please don’t think I believe it was anything but luck; beauty is only an accident, like the way a person is born.”
“I am filthy, sickened, beastly. I have seen myself plain.”
“My sister Julia, on the other hand—”
“I am rotten; that is why I am so frightened—I am terribly afraid that this hope which Aunt Fanny—”
“Aunt Fanny ,” said Arabella, “you’re talking about Aunt Fanny? But I thought all your unspeakable thoughts were about me .”
_____
“Well, I don’t care what the old biddy says,” Julia said, taking the turn by the gates in a wide sweep of the steering wheel, and barely slowing the car, “ I ’d go anywhere I pleased.”
“It’s very difficult,” Miss Ogilvie said hesitantly. “That is, she does mind, and being dependent, I suppose it’s the least we can do, not asking to have the gates unlocked.”
“Not me ,” Julia said. “You saw the way I take care of things; I just told him it was all right with the old lady, and maybe he thought I was taking you two to church or something, because he wouldn’t dare to keep me inside.”
“I merely do not choose, often, to leave my home,” Aunt Fanny observed from the back seat. “Your modern automobiles . . . particularly this one; Julia, do you mind moving just a little more slowly? Automobiles, and noise and dust and strange people . . . I prefer a somewhat less feverish life, thank you.”
“What will she say when she hears you two have been gallivanting around?” Julia asked, peering at them in the rear-view mirror.
“I do not gallivant around,” Aunt Fanny said, and Miss Ogilvie said, “We didn’t think she’d have to know. Unless you tell her.”
“I keep your secrets,” Julia said darkly, “and you keep mine.”
_____
Although the fact had probably not influenced the first Mr. Halloran in his choice of a site for his house, the village had been, shortly before his time, very much the subject of sensational publicity. Young Harriet Stuart, it was generally believed, had one morning arisen unusually early in the Stuart house just outside the village, and taken up a hammer with which she murdered her father, her mother, and her two younger brothers, putting an abrupt end to the Stuart family tree. Fall River, Massachusetts, was nothing to the villagers near Mr. Halloran’s proposed big house; Harriet Stuart was their enshrined murderess. During Harriet’s arrest and trial, the villagers met more strangers than had ever come their way before, and after Harriet’s acquittal it was customary for almost daily groups of tourists to get off the bus in front of the Carriage Stop Inn, and wander, guided by a villager, up the half mile to the Stuart house, where they were occasionally rewarded by a fleeting glimpse of Harriet’s housekeeper and guardian, an aunt who must sometimes have wondered if Harriet’s hammer days were over, working in the garden or taking in the
“No,” said Arabella, “I do not think I can remember that I ever felt anything like that.”
“It is unholy because it is heretic. It is foul. It is abominable to need something so badly that you cannot picture living without it. It is a contradiction to the condition of mankind.”
“I have always lived very well, you see,” Arabella said. “My mother has made a particular point of seeing that I lacked for nothing.”
“I dread that it may be only a longing for annihilation. No person who has seen his own face plain can want to live longer.”
“Well, I can’t understand that . I mean, I can understand a person’s not liking his own face, but people can’t help their faces, after all. I know I always feel very sorry for girls who are not nice-looking. And I’m sure I think you’ve got a very pleasant face.”
“The sight of one’s own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward—that’s why they’ve been given bodies, to hide their souls.”
“Of course, I was very lucky, and please don’t think I believe it was anything but luck; beauty is only an accident, like the way a person is born.”
“I am filthy, sickened, beastly. I have seen myself plain.”
“My sister Julia, on the other hand—”
“I am rotten; that is why I am so frightened—I am terribly afraid that this hope which Aunt Fanny—”
“Aunt Fanny ,” said Arabella, “you’re talking about Aunt Fanny? But I thought all your unspeakable thoughts were about me .”
_____
“Well, I don’t care what the old biddy says,” Julia said, taking the turn by the gates in a wide sweep of the steering wheel, and barely slowing the car, “ I ’d go anywhere I pleased.”
“It’s very difficult,” Miss Ogilvie said hesitantly. “That is, she does mind, and being dependent, I suppose it’s the least we can do, not asking to have the gates unlocked.”
“Not me ,” Julia said. “You saw the way I take care of things; I just told him it was all right with the old lady, and maybe he thought I was taking you two to church or something, because he wouldn’t dare to keep me inside.”
“I merely do not choose, often, to leave my home,” Aunt Fanny observed from the back seat. “Your modern automobiles . . . particularly this one; Julia, do you mind moving just a little more slowly? Automobiles, and noise and dust and strange people . . . I prefer a somewhat less feverish life, thank you.”
“What will she say when she hears you two have been gallivanting around?” Julia asked, peering at them in the rear-view mirror.
“I do not gallivant around,” Aunt Fanny said, and Miss Ogilvie said, “We didn’t think she’d have to know. Unless you tell her.”
“I keep your secrets,” Julia said darkly, “and you keep mine.”
_____
Although the fact had probably not influenced the first Mr. Halloran in his choice of a site for his house, the village had been, shortly before his time, very much the subject of sensational publicity. Young Harriet Stuart, it was generally believed, had one morning arisen unusually early in the Stuart house just outside the village, and taken up a hammer with which she murdered her father, her mother, and her two younger brothers, putting an abrupt end to the Stuart family tree. Fall River, Massachusetts, was nothing to the villagers near Mr. Halloran’s proposed big house; Harriet Stuart was their enshrined murderess. During Harriet’s arrest and trial, the villagers met more strangers than had ever come their way before, and after Harriet’s acquittal it was customary for almost daily groups of tourists to get off the bus in front of the Carriage Stop Inn, and wander, guided by a villager, up the half mile to the Stuart house, where they were occasionally rewarded by a fleeting glimpse of Harriet’s housekeeper and guardian, an aunt who must sometimes have wondered if Harriet’s hammer days were over, working in the garden or taking in the
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