Felix provided a temporary solution when he suggested to both families that it might be salutary for all if Bonard accompanied him to Savannah where he was obliged to go in a day or two on business that concerned the cotton gin and the marketing and shipping of Beulah Land cotton later that summer. Leon wanted to go with them but thought he might appear frivolous if he suggested it. And so Felix and Bonard departed, to everyone’s relief.

Selma avoided her mother’s company and would not respond sensibly when Deborah insisted upon talking to her. She continued despondent, to have bad dreams. One afternoon of a day that had been quiet and ordinary enough, she tried to stab herself with a pair of scissors, but they were only sewing scissors and old ones and luckily too dull to inflict real damage before Lovey took them away from her.

It was then Lovey presented to Deborah what Deborah should have seen for herself: the necessity for Selma to be attended day and night by someone who was truly concerned for her well-being.

Deborah admitted that the need was beyond Lovey’s capacity to satisfy it. If she attended Selma, who would supervise the house and servants? No one else was prepared to do that, nor was Lovey prepared to allow anyone to supersede her if such a suitable person were discovered.

Pondering the matter, Deborah observed, “I know. Yes, I know; I do, I know. But who is willing to attend her constantly? Who can be trusted? Indeed, whom would she allow to attend her?”

“Pauline would like to try.”

“Pauline?”

That night Pauline, not Lovey, slept in Selma’s room. Pauline comforted her when she woke crying in the dark morning hours. When day came and Selma woke again, Pauline lay beside her on top of the bed covering, and it seemed natural to Selma that she was there.

13

“Come away from the window, Lauretta. You are standing right in the light where people passing can see you. Whatever are you waiting there for, a knight on a white charger?” Lauretta did not turn until she heard her aunt leave the room, her shoes tapping four times as she crossed the bare stretch of polished floor between the carpet and the throw rug separating the family parlor from the dining room.

It was an evening in late May. The day had been hot, as May days could be in Savannah, and the Misses Pennington, the one old, the two young, had enjoyed ice in their tea at their evening meal.

“Oh, how nice, Aunt Pea!” Sarah said, when Clarice brought the tea in to them.