MARCHChapter 1
in which we gather
at Jocelyn's
to discuss Emma
"We sat in a circle on Jocelyn's screened porch at dusk, drinking cold
sun tea, surrounded by the smell of her twelve acres of fresh-mowed
California grass. There was a very pretty view. The sunset had been
a spectacular dash of purple, and now the Berryessa mountains were
shadowed in the west. Due south in the springtime, but not the
summer, was a stream.
'Just listen to the frogs,' Jocelyn said. We listened. Apparently
somewhere beneath the clamor of her kennel of barking dogs was
a chorus of frogs.
She introduced us all to Grigg. He had brought the Gramercy
edition of the complete novels, which suggested that Austen was
merely a recent whim. We really could not approve of someone
who showed up with an obviously new book, of someone who had
the complete novels on his lap when only Emma was under
discussion. Whenever he first spoke, whatever he said, one of us
would have to put him in his place."
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