"Formerly published as 'A jest of God'."

"An immediately recognizable woman, Rachel Cameron has let fourteen years slip by since her father's death forced her to leave college and return home to teach grade school. Trapped by a tyrannically demanding mother, Rachel must suffer daily assaults on her self-respect: from the yearly classes of youngsters, who give her no more than enforced attention, forgetting her as they move on, while she longs for a child of her own; from the school principal, who knowingly takes advantage of her insecurities; from the older fellow teacher, who insinuates herself ambiguously into Rachel's life ... But in her thirty-fourth summer quite unexpectedly [she] finds release ... [which] provides her with the strength to free herself."

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