But, strangely enough, it was after she left that I was most aware of her presence and what she had done for us. The house had a new serenity—order had been made out of chaos. Everywhere I looked I felt her hand, as if I had been given, suddenly, a fresh start, could take a deep breath without seeing dust under the table.

While she worked, Nick got us caught up on kindling and wood, took out the trash, then drove her home. I wonder whether he can be tamed to join us for coffee next time. The thing is that he is not articulate as she is—she is one of the most articulate people I have ever known. It is as if her creativity went into language, and into conversation. Yet it has had so little play, first while living with her boor of a husband, and then left alone with her withdrawn child. So I think it will be almost as good for her as it is for us to do some philosophizing with Cornelius.

“You know,” he said just before his nap, “I have never really understood your feeling about Ellen before. Now I begin to. She is quite a person.”

He had forgotten that she was Town Clerk for years and is a permanent member of the trustees for the library. I told him how she had fought to get first-rate reference books.

“I am having to give up my prejudices one by one,” he said, and laughed at himself. “Where will it end?”

He has always taken it for granted that we and people like us were the civilizing influence; now he begins to know that it has always been an exchange. We have enriched each other immeasurably is my thought about it. It led me to speak again of Eben, a good example of how the local quality came up and finally flowered—and that couldn’t have happened without financial help from old Judge Chapman when Eben was a boy.

“Father had the right idea, but he was such a swell! He did it badly.—Yes, we must invite Eben over. I want to have a talk with him.”

Dear Cornelius! He has been thinking a lot about the past. He is re-examining everything. It makes me so proud.

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5