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"Nash had resigned his post not because he was gay; he'd known he was gay long before he ever caned his post because of what he'd seen in me and what I'd told him about my own predilections! Oh, it was so perfectly obvious and I'd been such a dolt not to catch on I should have let hiht away

" 'Look, Nash,' I said, 'you've got to stay You want to stay and I want you to stay Now let's just take a vow that nothing erotic will ever pass between us That it's, you know, inappropriate You'll become the perfect teacher forfrom you ¡¯

" 'Now that's a potent argument,' said Aunt Queen, 'no pun intended I do mean, really Nash, Quinn has a point there ' She h 'Good Lord, in schools all over this country gay men and women make excellent and sympathetic teachers The whole issue is settled ' She rose 'Nash Penfield, you s, at least until we leave for New York, and Quinn, you have to get so's settled until suppertime ¡¯

"Nash still seemed to be in a state of shock, but I shook his hand and elicited a wide-eyed and softlyto take hiet three hundred dollars out of my bureau (I always had some money there) and to make certain that I had on the best suit of clothes I owned and the lucky Versace tie, which I had not worn to meet with our lawyer

"As I ca pull at me; I don'tor atiht of noas Rebecca In fact, it seemed for a moment Rebecca ith me, and then she wasn't

Little redheaded bitchblack bitch!

"When I reached the side laalked slowly over the flagstone terrace and through the new arrange that Rebecca was very near Rebecca aiting forto talk to me Yes, I had been on this very couch with her, and she had sat on that chair, and the coffee had been on this table A dizziness came and went as it had that day in the swaht it A life for my life A death for my death

" 'What did you say?' I asked 'A life for a life?' Who was I talking to? I battled the dizziness 'Murderous ghost, get away from me!' I whispered

"What was I doing out here on the side lawn? So they had refurbished the wicker as I told them to do

"I had to be gone I headed for the shed

"And withinout in Sweetheart's old Mercedes 450 sedan, the car I had always h I think it was as old as I was

"I was on the highway in no ti towards Mona Mayfair But there was ti by the florist on St Charles and Third and buy Mona a beautiful bouquet of long-stemmed roses

"Then I drove to my final destination: First and Chestnut, riverside don corner Of course the house wasn't near the river The river was a world away The expression was just a way of orienting oneself in New Orleans

"The house was quietly fabulous It didn't have the arrogant splendor of Blackwood Manor Rather it was a Greek Revival town house with a side-hall door, four coluht lavender, and beyond to the far right a partially concealed side garden The whole round and the steps hite marble

"I parked the car across the intersection and I uided, and with the huge bouquet in my arms, breathless to offer it to her