Introducing herself and explaining she had come on behalf of the paper became easier, if not easy. Observing Trey’s approach when she accompanied him to a town council meeting and a retirement dinner at the flour mill helped, although his approach was too — male. Her first test as the paper’s social reporter came at a luncheon given by Mrs. Gilbert Snopes, one of Miriam’s new friends. Deborah had not received one of the coveted invitations, but Trey had. “Here,” he said. “Take this, go have a nice lunch, and listen to enough of the nonsense to write something about it.” The guest of honor at the luncheon was a high muckety-muck from the Women’s Temperance Union. “You don’t believe in temperance?” “I don’t believe in laws that can’t be enforced. That’s my opinion, not the paper’s. The Herald is staying above the fray.” Deborah folded the invitation inside her new leather purse and walked the half mile to the Snopes mansion. As she approached the imposing three-storied house with its turrets, pillars, and lovely bargeboard, butterflies took wing in her stomach.
