Chapters 13, 14 and 15 Summary

One evening Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Fosdick join the young woman in her room where she has built the first fire of the season to ward off the chill from a rainstorm. The conversation of the two older women gravitates to the discussion of a woman referred to as "poor Joanna."

Years ago, when Mrs. Todd was newly married, there was a girl in the town named Joanna, who was engaged to be married to a man from Massachusetts. At the last minute the man refused to marry Joanna and ran away back to Massachusetts to marry someone else and was never heard from again. Joanna's humiliation prompted her to give away her half of the family farm and move to a nearby island where she vowed to live out her life alone. Apparently, Joanna felt that she was not fit...