Shop H.E. Bates Online
ID
b269
Title
"Thelma"
Genre
Story
Page Count
22
Word Count
6700
Publisher
Housewife
Publication Year
1956

A hotel maid tries to replicate her first romantic encounter in dozens of casual alliances.

In her fifties, on learning of the death of the first lover, she loses the will to live, remembered fondly by a host of commercial travelers.

In Housewife (January 1956), Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal and Other Stories/The Enchantress and Other Stories (1961), Seven by Five/The Best of H.E. Bates (1963), The Girl on the Bus and Other Love Stories (1966), Elephant's Nest in a Rhubarb Tree & Other Stories (1989).