Day 7

Gallant is mordantly funny as she describes the striving Wishart and snobby Bonnie, + their mutual disappointment when their masks fall away.

“It established him in reality—a master afraid for his grubby post—and reality was not what Bonnie demanded.”

Do you think that Wishart actually makes this comment about Flor out loud? I’m not sure.

“He heard the words, ‘she has a crack across the brain,’ but was never certain if he had said them aloud.”

“When he had gone, she would hear the question, the ghost voice that speaks to every traveler. Why did you come to this place?” This makes me think of the last line of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “Questions of Travel.”

Continent, city, country, society:
the choice is never wide and never free.
And here, or there... No. Should we have stayed at home,
wherever that may be?