"It was by this time her fate to have been part, even if only fragmentarily, of the past of such a great segment of the community that she was something of a vested memory, as much to those who would not admit to having had any personal contact as to those who boasted innumerable encounters, and every story, new or old, in which she distinguished herself by being somehow still unrepentantly out of pitch with the rest of humanity was as welcome as the fragile daily illusion that nothing is really changing." (441)