WHITNEY RICKETTS

Throughout her life she was ironic and strict with her thoughts. She went dancing most Friday nights in town. People said that Maytree, or felicity, or solitude had driven her crazy. People said she had been an ugly girl, or a child movie star; that she inherited fabulous sums of money and lived in a shack without pipes or wires; that she read too much; that she was wanting in ambition and could have married anyone. She lacked a woman’s sense of doom. She did what she wanted — like who else on earth? All her life she found dignity overrated. She rolled down dunes.

ANNIE DILLARD, The Maytrees