y life! I only married Roscoe to get away from home, and
look what that got me into!--look where I am now! He brought me to this
town, and what did I have in my life but his FAMILY? And they didn't
even know the right crowd! If they had, it might have been SOMETHING!
I had nothing--nothing--nothing in the world! I wanted to have a good
time--and how could I? Where's any good time among these Sheridans? They
never even had wine on the table! I thought I was marrying into a rich
family where I'd meet attractive people I'd read about, and travel, and
go to dances--and, oh, my Lord! all I got was these Sheridans! I did
the best I could; I did, indeed! Oh, I DID! I just tried to live. Every
woman's got a right to live, some time in her life, I guess! Things were
just beginning to look brighter--we'd moved up here, and that frozen
crowd across the street were after Jim for their daughter, and they'd
have started us with the right people--and then I saw how Edith was
getting him away from me. She did it, too! She got him! A girl with
money can do that to a married woman--yes, she can, every time! And what
could I do? What can any woman do in my fix? I couldn't do ANYTHING but
try to stand it--and I couldn't stand it! I went to that icicle--that
Vertrees girl--and she could have helped me a little, and it wouldn't
have hurt her. It wouldn't have done her any harm to help me THAT
little! She treated me as if I'd been dirt that she wouldn't even take
the trouble to sweep out of her house! Let her WAIT!"

Sibyl's voice, hoarse from babbling, became no more than a husky
whisper, though she strove to make it louder. She struggled half
upright, and the nurse restrained her. "I'd get up out of this bed to
show her she can't do such things to me! I was absolutely ladylike, and
she walked out and left me there alone! She'll SEE! She started after
Bibbs before Jim's casket was fairly underground, and she thinks she's
landed that poor loon--but she'll see! She'll see! If I'm ever able
to walk across the street again I'll show her how to treat a woman in
trouble that comes to her for help! It wouldn't have hurt her any--it
wouldn't--it wouldn't. And Edith needn't have told what she told
Roscoe--it wouldn't have hurt her to let me alone. And HE told her I
bored him--telephoning him I wanted to see him. He needn't have done
it! He needn't--needn't--" Her voice grew fainter, for that while,
with exhaustion, though she would go over it all agai