Bonard looked a prince. He set great store on personal cleanliness, both of his person and apparel, so there was nothing about him to offend Selma’s sensibilities. Smitten by the young girl, Bonard looked all alert, and his mere alertness looked like sensitivity to the young girl.

Deborah’s hints to Selma were clumsy and obvious, which perversely only served to set off Bonard’s sensitivity in a stronger and more sympathetic light. But it was Rooster’s marrying Trudy that put the cap on the doll.

There were parties at which Bonard regularly heard, “Appears to me, Bonard, your young brother has beat you to it.”

There were female parties for Trudy at which Selma heard repeatedly, “What a fine family the Davises are, to be sure!”

And there were parties attended by both Selma and Bonard where it seemed to fall naturally that they were together, or placed together by name cards, and they fell into a joking way of comparing experiences and exchanging mockeries about those around them. Eager to please her, Bonard had little more to do than nod and smile for Selma to believe that he thought and felt as she did, that there truly was a special bond between them.

Never really alone, they affected to treasure the brief pauses they shared in society when someone by chance left them, before someone else came in. One time—had it been a more humid day, it might not have happened, or would have happened differently—caught alone, they chanced to turn at the same time to face each other and something in their look of surprise at this coincidence, sharpened by the electricity of the dry air, gave the moment importance. That moment persuaded Selma that she could love Bonard. Quick to see in her eyes what had happened, he took her hands in his, and a minute later they were engaged to be married.

6

There was brief talk of a double wedding, but Bonard’s pride would not sanction that; he could not seem to follow and join his younger brother. So Trudy and Rooster were married in February, and Trudy was pregnant before the wedding date of Selma and Bonard was finally set for the middle of May.

Curiously, having given her promise and allowed it to be made public, Selma did not back away. Once they were engaged to be married, Selma and Bonard were even less often alone than they had been when unpromised. They allowed themselves to be taken over by others, to become puppet dolls for all the hands and wills about them.