Contents
Chapter 15
Overview
Birdie confronts Frances’s blind trust in Garnett while household tensions rise over unpaid staff and Rory’s evasiveness. During a shopping trip, Birdie accompanies Mrs. Tartt to the bank and discovers Rory was fired weeks ago and squandered family funds. With only $36.14 left and a large mortgage overdue, Mrs. Tartt is devastated, upending the family’s security.
Summary
On a sweltering Sunday evening, Birdie and Frances debate Garnett Pittman’s treatment of Meg and the older girls. Birdie presses Frances to question Garnett’s rhetoric about “feebleminded” women and child labor, planting doubt about sending girls to a cannery. Frances secures Rory’s agreement to a request but warns Birdie to keep her criticisms private.
The next morning, Birdie reads an article lauding Garnett’s charity while overhearing Picador and Polly reveal they haven’t been paid in weeks. As the heat intensifies, Rory returns home irritable and apparently drunk. Confronted by Mrs. Tartt about unpaid help and changes to staff schedules, Rory deflects and promises to pay on Friday, then offers to take the women shopping the next day and charge purchases to the account.
Rory drives them to town, then departs. While Frances immerses herself in extravagant shopping at Neilson’s, Mrs. Tartt asks Birdie to accompany her to the bank for her dividend to pay Picador and Polly. At the Bank of Lafayette County, banker Jack Walsh and Mr. Allison reveal Rory was fired three weeks earlier. Shocked, Mrs. Tartt is ushered into Allison’s office as Birdie presses Walsh, who confirms the dismissal amid widespread financial hardship.
Mr. Allison explains that Rory mishandled the family’s accounts, invested recklessly, and stopped making mortgage payments, applying proceeds from a land sale toward principal and covering market losses. When Eleanor tallies the balances, only $36.14 remains, and the overdue mortgage totals $2,754, due immediately. Reeling, Mrs. Tartt leans on Birdie for support.
Shattered by the deception and financial ruin, Mrs. Tartt asks Birdie to take her home. Birdie leads her out, intent on collecting Frances and returning to confront the crisis now engulfing the Tartt household.
Who Appears
- Birdie CalhounNarrator; challenges Frances’s belief in Garnett, discovers Rory’s firing and the Tartts’ financial collapse, supports Mrs. Tartt at the bank.
- Mrs. Viktoria TarttMatriarch; confronts Rory about unpaid staff, learns at the bank that Rory was fired and lost the family’s funds; devastated.
- Frances TarttBirdie’s sister; defends Garnett, fixates on shopping; unaware of Rory’s job loss and money crisis while spending at Neilson’s.
- Rory TarttMrs. Tartt’s son; evasive, possibly drunk, promises payments and shopping, later revealed to have been fired and to have lost family money.
- Jack WalshBanker; informs Birdie and facilitates the revelation that Rory was fired; observes the family’s distress.
- Mr. AllisonSenior banker; details Rory’s reckless investments, the minimal remaining funds, and the overdue mortgage.
- EleanorBank secretary; retrieves account files and calculates the remaining $36.14 balance.
- PicadorHouse staff; reveals he hasn’t been paid in weeks, highlighting Rory’s neglect.
- PollyHouse staff; also unpaid, central to prompting Mrs. Tartt’s bank visit.
- Miss Ella McGuireNeilson’s employee; greets Mrs. Tartt and assists with Frances’s shopping.
- NellySalesgirl at Neilson’s; helps Frances select dresses and accessories.
- Garnett (Mrs. Welty) PittmanPromoted in the newspaper for her charity; her ideology spurs Birdie’s challenge to Frances.