Summary

After speaking with Helen Crane, Miss Strangeworth continues her journey home, stopping to speak to Billy Moore about his father’s new car and Miss Chandler, the librarian, about new novels arriving at the library. She notes that Miss Chandler looks unkempt, and the narrator explains that “Miss Strangeworth hated sloppiness” (3).

Miss Strangeworth thinks to herself that many people in town seem “disturbed” (3) recently, noting that the previous day she had seen 15-year-old Linda Stewart crying on her way out of her house. Other people assumed she had had a fight with Dave Harris, but those thoughts were quickly dispelled when the two arrived at the soda shop after school together as usual, though they both seemed upset.

Eschewing thoughts of Linda Stewart and Dave Harris, Miss Strangeworth heads home and is thrilled to find that she can smell her roses from halfway down...