Munsey's Magazine, April 1923

Obligations by Elizabeth York Miller "Obligations," by Elizabeth York Miller, explores guilt and psychological consequence. In Little Rock, Arkansas, seven-year-old Virginia Montmorency O'Dare—while under the care of German servant Sophie—escapes to a meadow to play with neighborhood children, including twelve-year-old Nicholas Wayne from the impoverished Ditch district. During a picnic, Virginia pushes Nicholas high in a cherry-tree swing as he repeatedly demands. The overhead branch, weakened by strain, suddenly breaks, and Nicholas falls, apparently fatally injured. Terrified, Virginia flees home. She falls ill with brain fever and never fully recovers emotionally, becoming pathologically fearful of police and confined to home. Meanwhile, her father Malcolm O'Dare abandons law practice to become a senator's secretary, eventually advancing to postmaster of Washington, accumulating wealth. Virginia attends an expensive Georgetown boarding school. Throughout, the mystery of her lost shoes and stockings remains unsolved.