In spite of the fact that Annabel Davis considered Sarah “an elder,” Sarah was generally admired by men. Her appeal was double, that of a virtuous woman who happens also to be physically desirable. Of the men who knew her, Leon was perhaps alone in being unresponsive to her sensual quality. Casey Troy was certainly struck by it; however much Sarah might set aside his compliments as exaggerated good manners and a clever business tactic.

Bruce Davis had long found himself powerfully drawn to her. He was the kind of man who falls in love only once in his life. The unique object had been Trudy Coker, and he had been truly in love with her only during the spring they were briefly engaged and then married. Some men need to be in love and are so all their lives, however often the object of their love changes. Bruce needed not to be, in order to concentrate on the affairs closer to his heart and soul than a woman could be. It was as if nature claimed him for herself, had been able to spare him only briefly from her chores.

Even so, there was a time eight years ago when he daydreamed about Sarah without perhaps being exactly in love. There was nothing in it so conscious as a wish. But he found himself wondering—if Leon died unexpectedly in an epidemic of the fever, say—and if he, Bruce, were to help the widow to manage the large affairs of Beulah Land, would she be receptive to his regard? One day, would he look at her and she look back at him and both understand? It was at this point his daydream always faded discreetly into vagueness; but being honest, Bruce admitted to himself what he had been doing. He had been fantasying adultery with his neighbor’s wife. Acknowledging it both shocked and thrilled him. It was at that time some of his own awareness of his feelings must have become evident to Sarah, for it was then she stopped calling him by his childhood nickname of Rooster and began to call him “Bruce.” Edna had guessed how things were with her son. There was no one whose funeral, therefore, she might have attended with easier resignation than Leon’s, although she did not dislike him in the least. But the prospect of Sarah as a possible daughter-in-law appealed to Edna mightily. Thus do good Christians commit murder casually in their hearts.