s to become a horse jockey. After seeing the race and seeing the mare with her bloody nose afterwards and then meeting Uncle Gabriel and his wife, Miranda makes another decision that she does not want to be a jockey after all. Her father pokes fun at her by reminding her of her of her femininity and saying, "Well, well,...so you aren't going to be a jockey! That's very sensible of you. I think she ought to be a lion-tamer, don't you Maria? That's a nice, womanly profession" (205).The final section of the story begins with a slightly liberated, eighteen year old Miranda taking a train home for Uncle Gabriel's funeral. She ends up in the same sleeping-car as Cousin Eva. Once they realize who the other is, Eva begins a tirade of the family legend of the beautiful Amy. Cousin Eva has her own version of the family legend of Amy; her's is the contempt and bitter version of the values which degraded her and made her feel second class because she was not beautiful. When Miranda puts in a word of defense for Amy, claiming that everyone loved her, Cousin Eva rebutted by saying, "Not everybody, by a long shot,...She had enemies. If she knew, she pretended she didn't. If she cared, she never said. You couldn't make her quarrel. She was sweet as a honeycomb to everybody. Everybody...That was the trouble. She went through life like a spoiled darling, doing as she pleased and letting other people suffer for it, and pick up the pieces after her" (211). The third section opens Miranda's eyes to the different views that can be taken from different people. Cousin Eva's version of the family legend is as obviously false as were those she grew up hearing about. The truth was somewhere in the middle, but Miranda does not care to spend any more of her life fantasizing about the past. Cousin Eva does make one point with hero story. By her still being alive and Amy having long ago passed away, the old axiom "beauty goes, character stays" (...
