She paused, looked at John, and smiled a little. “John, I don’t know if I can ever explain to you how much your patience and understanding has helped me through this difficult decision.” Then she took a very deep breath and said, “I have spoken to Mama and Father Bruce about this, and John knows some of it. Now I want y’all to know that none of this has anything to do with him. He’s not at fault, in any way. I want y’all to accept that, and I expect you to make other people accept it, too. Do you understand me, Harriet?”

“Well, of course I do,” Harriet said peevishly. “Go on, would you, sugar?”

Caroline nodded. “What I have to tell you is this: I am resigning my position at the university effective immediately. I don’t like being a professor. I never did. I haven’t had any real interest in the research I do for a long time, and I’m only a mediocre teacher.”

“Why, that’s not—” Connie began, and stopped dead because her mother was sending her a disapproving look. John assumed his own expression was a lot like the ones he was seeing around the table, disbelief and shock and confusion. Kai was the only person who seemed unfazed, and she had tilted her head to one side in a way that meant she was waiting for more data to process.

The things that ran through John’s mind were disjointed, disturbing, but unstoppable: That’s the last thing I expected; and This will make a mess of the fall schedule; and Patty-Cake will implode; and finally, the realization that he would miss Caroline, who had been a friend first, and someone he liked working with.

“Why, baby,” Eunice said very slowly, as she might speak to someone who has had a blow to the head. “That’s your business. Nobody’s going to think any less of you if you decide you don’t want to work. John can support you.” She sent him a questioning glance, which he studiously overlooked.

“I’m not finished,” Caroline said sharply. Connie and Pearl were just across from John, and he saw the alarm in their faces. His own mother was all glittering eyes. Caroline said, “I am going to be moving away from Ogilvie, and I won’t be coming back—”

“Oh, Lord,” said Connie, closing her eyes. “You’re going into the convent, aren’t you. I knew it.”

“—except for visits now and then,” Caroline finished, shooting Connie an exasperated look. “No, I am not going into the convent. I wouldn’t make a very good nun, Father Bruce and I are agreed on that, aren’t we?”

She turned to her uncle and he bobbed his head. “No convent for our Caroline,” he said.