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"Yes, but it perhaps shows that instability can be soenetic, passed down frohter But that’s not i you back to that nice sanitarium so Doctor Beadermeyer can treat you Before your father died, he called us every week to tell us howWell, there eeks with setbacks, but he said that in thetherapies"

What could she say to that? Tell theo from disbelief to fury on her account? Not likely

She saw the years upon years of inflexibility, the utter rigidity, in her grandmother She remembered what Aunt Amabel had told her about when Noelle had come home, beaten by her husband, when Sally was just a baby How they hadn’t believed Noelle

It had always been there, of course, this rigidity, but since Sally had seen her grandmother so infrequently, she’d never had it turned on her More clearly than ever, Sally could see no her grandhter Noelle when she’d corandfather said, all hale and hearty, so good-natured, so weak, "it’s good to see you, dear I know you don’t have titon? Like your grand you a great deal of good"

She looked frorandfather, as tall as James, or at least he used to be, a man who had lived his life by a set of rules of his wife’s --or perhaps his father’s--a man who didn’t mind if someone strayed from the proper course but ouldn’t defend that person if his as anywhere near

She’d always believed hi anywhere near her, either--God, she wondered what he really thought of her She wondered why he had that tight, mean mouth She said, "I was in The Cove I stayed for a while with Aunt Arandotten stiffer "She made her bed and now she must--"

"She’s very happy"

"She can’t be She disgraced herself and her fa, painted pictures!"

"Aunt Amabel is an excellent artist"

"Your aunt dabbled at ood painter, then why haven’t we heard of her? You see, no one has She lives in this backwater town and exists on a shoestring Forget about Arandfather and I are sorry you saw her We can’t give you ree Surely you understand why"

She looked her grandht in the eye "No, I don’t understand Tell rand, "you’re not well We’re sorry for it and a bit stunned, since this sort of thing has never before been in the faive you money because you could use it to hurt yourself even ht, ill call Doctor Beaderet you Trust us, dear"

"Yes, Susan, trust us We’ve always loved you, alanted the best for you"

"You hter, my mother, back to a man who beat her?"

"Susan!"

"It’s true, and both of you know it He beat the living shit out of her whenever he felt like it"

"Don’t use that kind of word in front of your grandrandfather said, and she saw that ht

She just looked at hi why she’d even come here, but still, she had to try She had to have money

"I tried to protect Noelle for years, but I couldn’t save her because she let him do it--do you hear me?--Noelle let him beat her She was just like all those pathetic worandrandfather and I have discussed this, and we know that battered wives are weak and stupid women They’re dependent They have no motivation They have no desire to better themselves They aren’t able to leave their situations because they’ve bred like rabbits and the men they’re married to drink and don’t have any money"