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Clarence tells Fern that Lloyd is preoccupied, and Fern pretends not to know why. Fern believes that Clarence knows what’s going on, but she’s mistaken.
While Cletus is at the barbershop with his father, Lloyd passes by the window. The barber asks Clarence about his friendship with Lloyd and Clarence does not reply. The barber notices in the mirror that Cletus is blushing.
Clarence and Lloyd avoid each other, they are no longer speaking. Marie asks Lloyd to explain why he and Clarence aren’t friends anymore. He realizes that she knows about the affair. He begins to explain but she stops him. She tells him that they will now go separate ways; he doesn’t know what she means.
After a few days, Marie announces that she and their children are moving in with her sister. Lloyd says she can take their four daughters but not their two sons. He tells her that the love affair with Fern has made him happy for the first time in his life.
Lloyd drives Marie and the girls into town. His daughters leave without saying goodbye. Back at the farm, his sons don’t understand why their mother isn’t there. They cry themselves to sleep at night. Lloyd finds that he doesn’t know how to do the domestic tasks and hires a widow named Mrs.
American Literature
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Guilt
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