Thinking about Valancy realizing she’s in love with Barney while he explains to her that he ran out of gas.
It’s not just a random moment. It’s Valancy realizing someone who has no obligation to care about her, caring about her so deeply that he rushes to make sure she’s ok without thinking about anything else.
It’s Barney’s deep concern for her vs all of the other people who actually had an obligation to care for her either letting her down, neglecting her, or outright abusing her. Family, pastor, even Roaring Abel who was in the same fucking room when the assault took place.
Barney “i was downright scared. I forgot everything except you and now I’m out of gas” Snaith.
Of course she fell head over heels for him.
She knew quite well now that she loved Barney. Yesterday she had been all her own. Now she was this man’s. Yet he had done nothing—said nothing. He had not even looked at her as a woman. But that didn’t matter. Nor did it matter what he was or what he had done. She loved him without any reservations. Everything in her went out wholly to him. She had no wish to stifle or disown her love. She seemed to be his so absolutely that thought apart from him—thought in which he did not predominate—was an impossibility.
Pretty sure there are a couple inaccurate things here:
- he has done something. Coming for her mattered a whole lot
- he has looked at her as a woman - when he was all flustered by her in the garden the first time they met. (She just doesn’t know it)
What stands out to me in the love passage is that she decides she belongs to Barney because he’s proven he can be trusted which is even more precious to her than being loved in return. Her family has been trying to prune down her heart but she gives it to Barney freely, knowing he wants it to bloom.
