Chapters 33 - 34 Summary

Before Christy leaves for her break with her family in Asheville, she visits Miss Alice, who expects her. Miss Alice sees that Christy still puts her upon a pedestal, and Miss Alice cannot allow Christy to go home with any illusions. Miss Alice tells Christy a story of how frail her humanness really is. A young Miss Alice is introduced to an itinerant preacher, a visiting Quaker from England. His manner is so like her father's that Miss Alice is immediately comfortable with him. Year after year he visits until one year Miss Alice is sixteen. The preacher fills her ears with lies about the Spirit of God and she must remove her clothes to experience it. Young, innocent, and impossibly naive, Miss Alice complies. The man of God rapes her and leaves her with child. The head of their Quaker...