Godliness, Part 3 Summary

Louise Bentley is a neurotic, oversensitive woman born to a delicate and overworked mother and a father who did not welcome her birth. She was a silent, moody child who wanted love more than anything in the world but did not get it. At the age of fifteen, she goes to reside with the Hardy family in the town of Winesburg so that she can attend high school. Her father is friends with Albert Hardy and arranges for her to stay there.

Albert Hardy was not educated himself, but he is a strong advocate of it and believes that if he was exposed to books, life would have been much better for him. His two daughters hate books and learning and threaten to quit school. Louise is not happy in Winesburg. She had dreamed of freedom and escaping the farm for...