When she was eighteen, however, her mother died and in
the task of bringing up six brothers and sisters younger than herself
all considerations for her personal ease were forgotten. Ten years
passed and her father was no more; than gradually, one after another,
the family she had so patiently reared took wing, leaving Celestina a
lonely spinster of fifty, homeless and practically penniless.
This cruel lack of responsibility on the part of her relatives resulted
less from a want of affection than from a supreme misunderstanding of
their older sister. So completely had Celestina learned to efface her
personality and her inclinations that they reasoned she was utterly
without preferences; that she lacked the homing instinct; and was quite
as happy in one place as in another. Having thus washed their hands of
her they proceeded to sell the Morton homestead and each one pocket his
share of the proceeds. Very scanty this inheritance was, so scanty
that it compelled Celestina to begin a rotation around the village,
where in return for shelter she filled in domestic gaps of various
kinds.
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