She was fond of telling strangers – tourists who sometimes passed through the town and stopped to admire Miss Strangeworth's roses – that she had never spent more than a day outside this town in all her long life. She was seventy-one, Miss Strangeworth told the tourists, with a pretty little dimple showing by her lip, and she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to her.
-- Narrator (Page 1)

Importance: This quote is the first indication the reader receives of Miss Strangeworth's sense of self-righteousness and traditionalism. Because she shows such pride in never having left her town, Miss Strangeworth becomes a character attached the "old ways" of doing things. This association with traditionalism is especially concerning when the narrator remarks that Miss Strangeworth believes the town belongs to her. There is an eerie sense of possession in this statement, and readers are subtly alerted to the fact that Miss Strangeworth may have ulterior...