Quotes About Housedress

The door opened. Mrs. Alworth wore a housedress that couldn't have been manufactured after the Bay of Pigs. She was in her mid-seventies, heavyset, the kind of big aunt who hugs you and you disappear in the folds. As a kid you hate the hug. As an adult you long for it. She had varicose veins that resembled sausage casing. Her reading glasses dangled against her enormous chest from a chain. She smelled faintly of cigarette smoke.

Did you take a vow of poverty or something? This is a housedress, Malloy, she said, indignant again. I was cleaning when you came. I gave my other clothes away because I got some new ones. From my mother. Did your mother take a vow of poverty?