Summary

“The Moment of Tenderness” is the titular story of L’Engle’s collection. It is set it Mt. George, Vermont, the implied hometown of Amy’s mother in “The Foreign Agent” and the setting of L’Engle’s “The Foreigners.” It is told in the past tense by a third-person narrator focused through Stella Purvis, the protagonist and wife of Bill Purvis.

L’Engle begins by describing Mt. George as “a monogomous” village, where no one had ever “heard of anyone being divorced, and adultery was unheard of” (174). So when Stella falls in love with Steve Carlton, the local doctor and husband of Betty, she is scandalized by her own behavior before any physical or emotional actions occur. Steve’s hands are what draw Stella to him—how gentle they are, how slowly and...