Summary

Four Seasons

It is February of 1910 again, and the day after the premature birth of Sylvie's baby. Sylvie reflects back to her own childhood and how her father gambled away their wealth, a fact that she and her poor mother only learned about after his untimely death. Her father had too much to drink and had fallen down a flight of stairs. The reader learns that at 17 Sylvie married Hugh, an up-and-coming young banker. She seized on the opportunity, as she was left destitute when her mother died. She had almost ended up being an artist's model, but then, as luck would have it, she met Hugh.

She jumps forward in her memories to their purchase of Fox Corner. The naming of the house, a place that overextended them a bit financially, was their first disagreement. When Sylvie saw a mother...