The play opened and progressed very much as all high school plays have gone for the past fifty years.

But Elnora did not appear in any of the scenes.
Out in the warm summer night a sour, grim woman nursed an aching heart and tried to justify herself.

The effort irritated her intensely.

She felt that she could not afford the things that were being done.

The old fear of losing the land that she and Robert Comstock had purchased and started clearing was strong upon her.