“It’s because of the book. It’s only an answer, that’s all it is.”

“Where did you learn about Gandhi?”

“At Vanderbilt. I was going to write a paper on him when I went back. Well, that was a long time ago.”

“Let’s have breakfast. I haven’t had young people in the house in so long. Oh, this makes me happy.” She began to pull bacon and eggs and bread and butter from the refrigerator and the pantry. She went into what I would always think of as Derry-gear, very very fast and hot and busy. I sat back and watched her cook.

That afternoon Charles William and Irise and I went antique shopping all over Montgomery. He was looking for new things to make into sconces for the grotto. At five-thirty we got back to Derry’s house and she said Jim had called and said not to wait dinner on him. “He said to tell you he was sorry,” she said. “He said he’d be here as soon as he could.”

At seven we ate dinner without him. At seven-fifty he called and said he’d be there as soon as he could. At ten-fifteen he showed up at the door with a Justice Department lawyer in tow and bad news about the trial.

“Did he do it, Jim?” Derry asked.

“He says he didn’t.”

“What do you think?”

“It’s going to be hard to get it reversed if they convict.”

“This one’s too hard,” the Justice Department lawyer said. “This isn’t the one we want to take all the way.”

“He lied to me,” Jim said. “Ten convictions I didn’t know about. We were blindsided all day.”

I waited while they talked. Several times Jim looked at me as if to say, I’m sorry, so sorry the evening turned out this way. Finally we got away from the others and walked out on the porch. It was colder than it had been the night before. I stood shivering beside him and he took off his coat and put it on my shoulders. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “You won’t trust me after this.”

“Why would I need to trust you? I’m married. I shouldn’t even have kissed you. I shouldn’t be out here.”

“Oh, Rhoda.”

“You should have been here for dinner. We had baked red snapper. Fresh fish from down on the coast. We went to a fish market to get it.” He took my arms and pulled me into his body. “It won’t always be like tonight,” he said. “My life isn’t always this way.”