The Conflict

Jane Hastings has spent six years studying in the East and Europe, only to come home and see one future waiting: marriage, and the loss of herself. Then David Hull climbs the hill to propose—and his declaration of love only sharpens her refusal.

In Remsen City, Indiana, factories smoke beneath the lawns and gardens of Jane’s family home. Restless after years of education and travel, she rejects the life prescribed for women: to marry, surrender her independence and live through a man. David Hull, once intent on a political career, tells her that love has made everything else seem unimportant. Jane sees in his proposal the very dependence she despises—and must ask what purpose she can claim for herself. If marriage is no answer, what will be?

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