Summary

In Chapter 10, Catherine leaves Miss Raines, clouded with dark thoughts about her fornicating father, abandoning mother, and the pregnant Sunday school teacher. She is certain that she will go straight back to Atlanta as soon as the funeral is over. Unable to bear the scene at her house, she walks across town to the home of Lolly Dempsey, her friend from school. Lolly had been Catherine's friend for a long time, and while Catherine's home life was hard without a mother, Lolly had a mother, a mother who verbally and emotionally abused her.

Lolly pulls Catherine into the house and Catherine vents all of her problems to her friend. During the tirade she picks up a lovely crystal vase and, finding that it was a gift to Lolly from her mother on her 18th birthday, is overcome with emotion that even...