Olive Higgins Prouty

“ Oh, there were worlds and worlds for Reba to discover; and the sailor's love, if she might call it that, unreturned though it was, added magic sweetness to her new freedom.
Reba little guessed throughout that roseate-colored day of hers that her hour of happiness was to be so short. She had no premonition, when she started on her shopping-tour with Miss Park in the early afternoon, that a big, black, steam-driven monster, that had just snorted through Ridgefield, was hurling destruction toward her with every revolution of its ponderous wheels. ”

“ Oh, to be acceptable to one's neighbors, to feel oneself included in the world's kindliness, to be distinguished by some man's preference, even a man like the sailor, as she—strange, strange coincidence—as she now was distinguished, what warmth it kindled! It kindled, too, in Reba a new, shy self-confidence—a wistful desire to go more than half-way in smiles, greetings, and little acts of friendliness. ”

“ She had been buried, and everybody inside the gray house at the top of Chestnut Street had been buried along with her, under layers of mean little self-centered thoughts, mean little self-centered acts, for years and years. ”