title: The Norton Introduction to Literature (Tenth Edition)
author: Alison Booth
description: Alison Booth is Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia. Her research interests focus on Victorian literature and feminist theory and criticism, and her teaching at Virginia has ranged from "The Nineteenth-Century British novel" to "Utopias and Science Fiction." She is the author of Greatness Engendered: George Eliot and Virginia Woolf and editor of Famous Last Words: Changes in Gender and Narrative Closure.
zlib_text: **People Will Talk**
  
  By
  
  Carol Rose
  
    
    
  
  Copyright Carol Rose 2012
  
    
    
  
  Second edition Published at Smashwords 2012
  
  First edition published by Kensington
  
    
    
  
  Cover image courtesy of Mark Hayes & Dreamstime.com
  
  Cover by Joleene Naylor
  
  Smashwords Edition, License Notes
  
  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
  re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book
  with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you
  share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was
  not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and
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   **********
  
  For Randy Doss, for his generosity of time and technical knowledge and his
  quiet, kind spirit.
  
   **********
  
   **Chapter One**
  
  If nothing else, the scandal surrounding Nora Elizabeth Hampton proved how
  unreliable men really were. 