A Startlingly Poignant Moment

Now reading Barbara Pym's Excellent Women, and this passage from early on in the book both surprised and moved me.

Excellent Women
Barbara Pym

I could very well see what she meant, for unmarried women with no ties could very well become unwanted. I should feel it even more than Winifred, for who was there really to grieve for me when I was gone. Dora, the Malorys, one or two people in my old village might be sorry, but I was not really first in anybody's life. I could so very easily be replaced.

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