A Rose for Emily

14 Pages 3428 Words

hear the invisible watch
ticking at the end of the gold chain.

Her voice was dry and cold. "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris
explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and
satisfy yourselves."

"But we have. We are the city authorities, Miss Emily. Didn't you get a notice from
the sheriff, signed by him?"

"I received a paper, yes," Miss Emily said. "Perhaps he considers himself the
sheriff.... I have no taxes in Jefferson."

"But there is nothing on the books to show that, you see. We must go by the--"

"See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson."

"But, Miss Emily--"

"See Colonel Sartoris." (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) "I have
no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!" The Negro appeared. "Show these gentlemen out."

So SHE VANQUISHED them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their
fathers thirty years before about the smell. That was two years after her father's
death and a short time after her sweetheart--the one we believed would marry her--
h...