Section 14 (pages 217-233) Summary

This section, which begins after a substantial on-the-page gap in the action, begins with the stark statements that Jack Boughton has a wife and child, and that they are both colored. After making these statements, John describes at length the encounter that he had with Jack during which this information came out.

John is at the church cleaning out old boxes of files. He's dirty and dusty, but welcomes Jack when he unexpectedly shows up. Jack shows him a picture of his wife and son and then begins a long narrative of his family's history. He describes himself and his wife (Della) as being married in the eyes of God but without the benefit of either a church marriage or a marriage license, and tells how they met by chance and developed a "respectable" (non-sexual) friendship, based at least...