Chapter 23

⁠​​​‌​​​​​‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌​​​​‌​​​‌​​‌‌‌​‌‌⁠On one of Cissy’s wakeful nights, she told Valancy her poor little story. They were sitting by the open window. Cissy could not get her breath lying down that night. An inglorious gibbous moon was hanging over the wooded hills and in its spectral light Cissy looked frail and lovely and incredibly young. A child. It did not seem possible that she could have lived through all the passion and pain an