Section 13 (pages 202-215) Summary

This section contains a lengthy, sensitively written account of how John and Lila came to be a couple. He describes how he became aware of her when she first came into his church, listened with grave attentiveness to his sermon, and left without saying anything more than "Thank you." He also describes how, at age 67, he felt romantic attraction for the first time, how that attraction was different from his feelings for Louisa (with whom he had grown up and with whom marriage was taken as inevitable), and how that passion conflicted, in his mind at least, with his pastoral responsibilities (see "Quotes," p. 204). He describes how he courted her by inviting her to Bible study and easing the obviously painful impact of some of the more painful comments of the other participants. He describes her response, which was...