“You see, I can’t let Franklin fall into despair. I happen to know that people give up on life, Miss Perkins. I know it only too well. When I was just about ten years old, my father drank himself out of a window and made an orphan of me…” This private confidence dismayed and disarmed me completely. I could only think how distressed she must be to share it. How distressed we both were, and for such similar reasons. I imagined Eleanor must’ve immediately regretted such an admission. And having no idea what to say—feeling guilty for guarding my own secrets while hers were so open and raw—I
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