Chapter 2 Summary

Chapter Two begins with Hagar sitting on the lawn on a spring day with Doris' minister, Mr. Troy. Hagar notes that it's not a good day for him to visit her, since her stomach is rumbling. She's bloated and constipated, fearful that she'll have gas. Hagar wears her gray-flowered dress, recalling that everything on the Shipley place was gray, never painted once. Mr. Troy makes conversation with Doris, though, before the memories take over. He asks her about her childhood

Hagar tells him about Jason Currie, her merchant father, who was worth at least two hundred thousand dollars, noting that, "never a red cent of it came to me." Not knowing what to say, Mr. Troy fades into the background and Hagar feels young, believing that she would see her own, dark-haired self before she left for the academy in Toronto if she...