“Are you worried about . . .” She pauses. She shouldn’t have started that sentence. “About what?” “You know. Them,” says Myrna. “The boys. Not that they’re exactly boys any longer.” Fern laughs a little. “Oh yes. Them. The Old Boys. With the last two novels I didn’t hear much from them. A couple of lukewarm attempts, but nothing like their big campaign. A couple of them—four, actually—have apologized. They said they realize that what they did must have caused me pain. They said The Humph put them up to it.”
