The Secret Scripture

Roseanne is afraid to speak to Dr. Grene, fearing that she’ll only share “imaginings” with him (219). She recalls that she was left alone in the hut for years but can’t remember if it was “as much as six, seven, even eight” (219). She busied herself by tending to the roses on her front porch. Roseanne writes this, while struggling to remember if any of what she recalls is accurate.

One day, Father Gaunt visited her alone. He looked older and was “losing his hair just at the temples” (220). It was summer and he seemed hot in his soutane. He carried a small leather case. Roseanne wondered about his status in her life. He could’ve been considered an old friend because they had known each other for so long. She figured that he could’ve written “an intimate history of [her] life” because he had witnessed so much of it (221). Roseanne didn’t believe that she disliked him, but she didn’t understand him either.

Father Gaunt didn’t greet Roseanne when he entered the hut. He looked briefly at her roses and passed her. She stood, wiped her hands of stem juice on the hut’s wooden steps, and followed him inside.