Explore "Lucy Gayheart" by Willa Cather on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
One hot morning in the middle of May, Lucy was putting fresh lavender bags in her bureau drawers. Lifting a pile of muslin underclothes, she came upon an unopened letter--a letter from Haverford, from Pauline! She laughed, but she was ashamed, really! It had come a week ago, when she was just beginning to practise in Sebastian's studio, trying to feel at her ease there, and she was afraid of anything that might dishearten her. Pauline's letters often had that effect, so she tucked this one out of sight for the moment,--and then forgot all about it. She thought, as she took it up and looked at it, that perhaps she hadn't made a mistake in forgetting! The letter was thick and bulky (a bad sign), and the handwriting on the envelope looked, even more than usual, like eggs rolling downhill. Pauline had inherited so many German characteristics--what a pity she couldn't have inherited a German script!
As Lucy opened the letter some newspaper clippings fell out. Pauline announced the theme at once. Harry Gordon was married! Married to Miss Arkwright of St. Joe, and they had started for Alaska on their wedding trip. Everyone in Haverford was "talking." People thought he had treated Lucy very badly. It was a great shock to her old friends. They had always believed his "intentions" were serious. They were asking Pauline what had happened, and she didn't know what to say. What did Lucy wish her to say, "under the circumstances"?