Dessie comes home to Tom

Dessie was the beloved of the family: an afternoon of fittings at her little house by Reynaud's Bakery would leave Agnes Morrison laughing all the way home and the whole household happy for two days after. Then a hopeless love affair took the glow out of her, she went on being what she was without it, her friends found virtuous reasons to stay away, and the ready-made dress finished her trade. She keeps to herself the fierce pains in her side. Will comes between trains to forbid her going back to the ranch — Tom is broody, walks the hills at night, writes pages of poetry — and she sends him away angry. Tom meets her at King City shaved and burnished, with ribbons braided into the horses' manes, and they dance a heel-and-toe on the platform. Every fifty yards up the ranch road a card says "Welcome Home", and on the far hill, in whitewashed stones, "Welcome Home, Dessie". Waking in pain at dawn, she hears the old house fill with Hamiltons and knows how brittle Tom is now.

Dessie's gift is proved on a stranger's household — the Morrisons, named and addressed, who never appear again — so that its loss can be measured later. Brother and sister each arrive determined to save the other and each hiding what needs saving: her pain, his brittleness. The whitewashed stones are Tom's whole character in one gesture, and he denies doing it.