"Mr. Penfold."
A "painfully shy, retreating" traveling draper and haberdasher calls weekly, over a period of years, on a war-widow and her daughter, but is incapable of forming a romantic bond with either. In Harper's Magazine (January 1940), John O'London's Weekly (January 19, 1940), The Beauty of the Dead and Other Stories (1940), Thirty-One Selected Tales (1947), Selected Short Stories of H.E. Bates (1951), Selected Stories (1957), The Good Corn and Other Stories (1974).
ID:
b136
Title:
"Mr. Penfold."
Genre:
Story
Page Count:
20
Word Count:
ca. 4670
Publisher:
Harper's Magazine
John O'London's Weekly
Year of Publication:
1940
Topic:
Daughters
Loneliness
Motherhood