Compare the feeling of these words in another story of infidelity, as the Preacher finds his wife with another, to Hurston’s young lovers in “The Gilded Six-Bits.”
“He found them that evening
In a tavern in town
In a quiet little out of the way place.
And they smiled at each other
As he walked through the door
And they died with their smiles on their faces.”
(“Red Headed Stranger”, C. Stutz)
The difference is not only in personal tolerance levels, but in the knowledge that in one couple”s story the love was reciprocal.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology