"That's terrible!"
"So when her boyfriend very gallantly proposed to her, she had no choice but to accept."
Kathy reflected for a few seconds.
"I was under the impression that she had a degree."
"Oh, and she got one. You see, the lad was not exactly indigent. He was from quite a wealthy family. So, after her divorce, she was left in a comfortable position, which allowed her to study, and in time become a teacher first, and later work for a newspaper. Then, when she married her second husband, she began her career as a novelist, as you already know."
The murmur of the market was giving way to the quieter surroundings of Patty's and the hotel.
"I still don't understand why Frances put her sister in that difficult position."
"They'd never been very close. However, Mary Anne hadn't been aware of her sister's jealousy until then."
"She was jealous of her boyfriend?"
Mrs. Horwood wrinkled her nose.
"Not exactly. Though the man did catch her eye when they finally met." She paused deliberately here for a more dramatic effect. "It was a year later. A sad and humiliating year for Mary Anne. After a discreet wedding, which none of her relatives attended, she began to suspect she might have married a flirt, though she never really caught him in flagrante. Until, one day, feeling lonely and somewhat guilty, she attempted to win her family back and telephoned them. After some conversations, she invited Frances to come visit her, which she did."
"So Mary Anne wasn't a very resentful person."
"Honey, sometimes you feel so lonely that your perspective is altered."
They exchanged looks, neither of them wanting to acknowledge whether they'd ever fallen prey to that kind of emotion.
"Anyway, Frances finally showed up and… A few hours later, Mary Anne caught her and her husband a bit too close and a bit too affectionate for a brother and a sister-in-law."
Kathy sighed in solidarity.
"She never actually spoke with her sister about that incident," proceeded Mrs. Horwood. "But it was enough for her to be convinced that she didn't want to spend the rest of her life with a man like that, no matter what the hardships of a divorce might be."
They were reaching the park near what was currently Kathy's home, the elegant Pink Roses Hotel. She could already glimpse the familiar bench, and she thought how many difficult situations every person has to face throughout one's life. She also again, like with Pat, grasped the fact that she surely, for temporal reasons, had been the least close to Mary Anne Sloan, when compared with these two women. She couldn't help wondering if they truly, as their irreproachable behavior towards her showed, didn't deep down see her as a suspicious intruder.