The Foundling

Betty asks Lillian to pick up some eggs from the barn. When she gets there, there is a thunderstorm, and Mary and the dairy girls are all scared of the thunder and lightning. Mary sees Lillian milking a cow and praying like they used to at St. Catherine’s. Lillian almost knocks over her bucket when Cloris, the attendant, calls out her name. Cloris is a gruff but friendly character. She chitchats with Mary and gives her cream and eggs.

The next day, Mary wants to see Lillian and tells Betty that they are low on butter as an excuse to visit the dairy house. Mary is disappointed that she doesn’t see Lillian, but when Mary receives her basket of butter, cheese, and eggs, the cloth covering the eggs is plain white rather than Betty’s usual checked pattern. On the back is a message from Lillian, written in charcoal, asking Mary to meet that night.

Mary is worried about meeting Lillian, but she sneaks out of the Goodwins’ house when everyone is asleep. She meets Lillian outside the woods, and Lillian takes her deeper into the forest, where Mary gives her chocolate and cigarettes. The two smoke in silence. Mary notices that Lillian has no shoes, and Lillian explains that their shoes are locked up at night so they are unable to run away.

Lillian tells Mary how she ended up at Nettleton. After St. Catherine’s, Lillian briefly went to work at the local mill. However, the pay was low, and conditions were poor. She started singing at Tom Henning’s speakeasy, where she met and fell in love with Graham Carr, a touring Black jazz player. She became pregnant, but Graham was on tour and she couldn’t go with him. One night at the club, Lillian got very drunk and Tom raped her. She ended up marrying Tom because her pregnancy began to show, and pregnancy out of wedlock was illegal. Though Lillian and Graham had a plan to get Lillian to New York, the baby arrived prematurely and was biracial.

Tom reported Lillian to the police, and Lillian refused to lie and say Graham raped her or reveal his name. The doctor who examined her diagnosed her as “feebleminded” because he couldn’t believe that she, a blonde white woman, would voluntarily sleep with a Black man. Lillian was sent to Nettleton immediately and was only able to hold her daughter, Rosemary, for a few minutes before being separated from her forever.

Mary doesn’t understand why Lillian would protect Graham—if she gives his name to the authorities, she can leave Nettleton—but Lillian says that he would be lynched and killed for having sex with a white woman. Lillian asks Mary to find Rosemary and rescue her from the orphanage where she’s kept. Mary is hesitant, and Lillian tries to convince her by saying she is the answer to Lillian’s prayers. Lillian also explains that her story is not unusual; there is nothing wrong with most of the women at Nettleton, but Mary refuses to believe her. She is also judgmental of Lillian’s interracial romance and afraid of getting caught.

Lillian calls her a coward and slaps her for insulting Graham. She tells Mary that she hustled her uncle Teddy and was no better than her. The two women fight, rolling in the forest underbrush. Lillian calls Mary “Little Trout,” an old hated nickname of Mary’s from the orphanage because her real name was Edeltraud. Mary leaves angrily. 

Mary and Bertie go to Clayburg to see a movie, but Bertie is in a bad mood because the dairy girls got heat stroke earlier and were sent back to work in the blistering heat without clean water. Though Bertie has sent two notices to Miss Hartley, Hartley insists that any water good enough for the cows is good enough for the girls. Bertie points out that the girls are treated worse than men in prison camps.

On Sunday morning, Mary wakes up early to go to the barn and check on Lillian. She feels torn about helping her. She sees the dairy girls and cows walking back to the farm. Among them, Lillian is sunburnt and peeling because her extremely fair skin is exposed to the sun without any protection. Mary prays for her.

Jake visits Mary in September, and they go on a trip to nearby Valley Lake. Mary is embarrassed that she doesn’t know how to swim or do any of the other activities at which Jake is casually proficient like tennis, skiing, and sailing. She starts to kiss him and begins crying because she feels lonely with her secret about Lillian. She tells him that many of the girls are at Nettleton because they made mistakes. Jake is confused; he thought they were there because they had head injuries.

Mary tells Jake about Lillian and their childhood together. They were close at the orphanage. Lillian never stole her money, and they both loved stories and romance novels. Both of these are signs of moral and intellectual intelligence, and Jake doesn’t understand why Lillian is at Nettleton. He tells Mary that this confirms his worst suspicions about Dr. Vogel and her abuse of the inmates at Nettleton.

Mary defends Dr. Vogel, and Jake retorts, “She’s there until she can’t have children. Right? So, we’re talking about twenty years locked up, maybe more? For what? Having a baby and lying about the father?” (132). Mary is unconvinced and becomes suspicious that Jake is only spending time with her because he is a reporter snooping for his next big story. She mirrors Dr. Vogel and becomes cold and defensive about Lillian’s diagnosis of “feebleminded.” Privately, she remembers how her uncle Teddy used to drink heavily and molest her, and she would let him do so until he passed out drunk. Then she would take his money to buy books and candy with Lillian. Mary blames Lillian for convincing her to “hustle” her uncle.

Jake and Mary continue to argue. He calls her naïve, and she points out that he has never been poor or alone, saying his “lofty ideas about social problems—labor, the poor, immigrants” are “all conjured up in the comfort of your doting parents’ dining room, or in cafés with your writer friends” (134). She convinces herself that Lillian is at least safe at Nettleton. When Jake doesn’t argue, Mary cries. He kisses her and gives her a cigarette, and they smoke as they drive back to Nettleton. 

When Mary returns, Betty is in labor. She has also received a letter from Graham, though the letter says that it is from an old friend, Martha Snook. Graham explains that he lives in Montmartre in Paris, France, and that his sister is willing to adopt Rosemary with his financial help. He explains his plan to communicate with Lillian through Myra, a fellow inmate and cafeteria waitress who can be trusted. He also says that he will not bother Mary if she does not respond, and if she wishes to speak on the phone, he will pay for all of the charges.

Mary watches Harry while Betty delivers her new baby. While she reads him The Velveteen Rabbit, she realizes that Graham loves Lillian. Eliza, Betty and Hal’s new baby, is born and Hal, Betty, and Betty’s mother are all ecstatic. Mary offers to temporarily stay at Bertie’s to make room for Betty’s mother.

Mary goes to the dining hall to find Bertie, who usually dances there. Elsie, who is non-verbal, plays jazzy songs beautifully, and Lillian teaches the staff to dance in exchange for cigarettes. Lillian teaches Bertie and then Mary. Though Mary is worried that Lillian will reveal their association, Lillian pretends not to know Mary. They apologize to each other and Mary almost gives her the letter from Graham. Just then, Elsie stops playing jazz and switches to Beethoven, interrupting the dance. Lillian brushes Elsie’s tangled hair, and Mary watches Lillian be maternal, sweet, and strong. 

Lillian stays at Bertie’s but has a hard time sleeping. She goes to look at Lillian’s file in Vogel’s office before anyone arrives and sees that Lillian’s mental age is listed as eight years old, and her religion is listed as Protestant. Mary knows that Lillian is very smart and Catholic, and she believes that someone made a terrible mistake.

Mary also sees that Dr. Vogel is making a significant profit from the dairy farms and has correspondence discussing how the female inmates are just as good at heavy labor as male inmates in prisons. Mary thinks that Lillian might be right: Healthy girls are being sent to Nettleton by the warden at the state prison, which is why there are so many strong and capable girls to farm, milk, and operate heavy machinery. Mary represses that thought, but she is certain that Lillian does not belong at Nettleton. However, she decides not to mention anything to Dr. Vogel. Instead, she writes to Mother Beatrice at St. Catherine’s to tell her that some girls at Nettleton are not receiving Catholic mass.

Dr. Vogel informs Mary that she will temporarily move in to Dr. Vogel’s home to make room for Betty and Hal’s expanding family. Mary is hurt that Betty and Hal don’t want her there anymore, though neither gives any indication that is the case. She arranges for her letter to be sent to Mother Beatrice and arrives at Dr. Vogel’s mansion. Mary is overwhelmed by its grandeur and the niceness of her room.