Thurston threw it to the floor with a thump.Rats, it seemed, have a way of showing up at the worst times."The devil did this!" Thurston cried. "A devil."Amy laughed. "The devil did this!""What?" Her voice had become hysterical. "You know what? Maybe I ought to go on a killing spree. I've never done anything like this in my life!"Amy's words reminded Thurston of another occasion: when he met Amy, he was just a boy in his village. He had no way of telling what she might have looked like then. Maybe she still looked like the dirty, threadbare woman standing before him. Her hair was dirty, but her cheeks weren't dark and her eyes weren't stony. There was something soft and pleasant about her. A shyness like he hadn't seen in any woman in his life.

                                                                                           the end