Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories Women and Femininity

If a patient came with a female complaint she could do nothing. (Ballad.53)

[...] she would stand there craning her neck against the collar of her shirt, or rubbing her swamp boots together, for all the world like a great, shamed, dumb-tongued child. (Ballad.53)

Now, of course, Miss Amelia was a powerful blunderbuss of a person, more than six feet tall—and Cousin Lymon a weakly little hunchback reaching only to her waist. (Ballad.79)

Yet in spite of his well-known reputation he was the beloved of many females in this region—and there were at the time several young girls who were clean-haired and soft-eyed, with tender sweet little buttocks and charming ways. These gentle young girls he degraded and shamed. (Ballad.84)

Anyway, she strode with great steps down the aisle of the church wearing her dead mother's bridal gown, which was of yellow satin and at least twelve inches too short for her. (Ballad.88)

At least, they counted on the marriage to tone down Miss Amelia's temper, to put a bit of bride-fat on her, and to change her at last into a calculable woman. (Ballad.89)

For some reason, after the day of Marvin Macy's arrival, she put aside her overalls and wore always the red dress she had before this time reserved for Sundays, funerals, and sessions of the court. (Ballad.176)

[...] from a salesman who passed through the town she bought a great bunch of paper roses that looked very real. (Ballad.204)

There was not a grain of modesty about Miss Amelia, and she frequently seemed to forget altogether that there were men in the room. (Ballad.193)

"Make it happy and simple," he said, switching on the lamp behind her and stepping back from the piano. (Ballad.112)

She was a tall, straight woman with a pale and haggard face. Her eyes were deeply shadowed and she wore her dark, ragged hair pushed back from her forehead. She had large, delicate hands, which were very grubby. (Madame.4)

Weeks passed and Madame Zilensky seemed to make no effort to get settled or to furnish the house with anything more than a table and some beds. (Madame.12)

Were they really her children after all, or had she simply rounded them up from somewhere? (Madame.36)

Ferris recalled that once his father had remarked that Elizabeth had a "beautiful carriage." (Sojourner.6)

The little girl sat demurely on Bailey's knees. She wore a pale pink crepe de Chine frock, smocked around the yoke with rose, and a matching silk hair ribbon tying back her pale soft curls. Her skin was summer tanned and her brown eyes flecked with gold and laughing. (Sojourner.29)

Elizabeth was very beautiful, more beautiful perhaps than he had ever realized. Her straight clean hair was shining. Her face was softer, glowing and serene. It was a madonna loveliness, dependent on the family ambiance. (Sojourner.30)

[...] his wife was a dissolute woman. Dissolute. And he and his children were bound to a future of degradation and slow ruin. (Domestic.88)