Synopsis

"Bunner Sisters," written in 1892 but not published until 1916 in Xingu and Other Stories, takes place in a shabby neighborhood in New York City. The two Bunner sisters, Ann Eliza the elder, and Evelina the younger, keep a small shop selling artificial flowers and small handsewn articles to Stuyvesant Square's "female population."

Ann Eliza gives Evelina a clock for her birthday. The clock leads the sisters to become involved with Herbert Ramy, owner of "the queerest little store you ever laid eyes on." Soon Ramy is a regular guest of the Bunner sisters, who realize that their "treadmill routine," once so comfortable, is now "intolerably monotonous." Ramy's appearance also begins to distance the sisters from each other, as Ann Eliza notes pathetic signs of flirtation in Evelina. Ann Eliza decides to sacrifice her own hopes and yearnings for those of her younger sister.

In spite of Ramy's frequent visits to the Bunner sisters, his background remains shrouded to them; the sisters' naiveté blinds them to Ramy's unexplained absences, from which he returns with "dull eyes" and a face the color of "yellow ashes." Ramy proposes marriage to Ann Eliza because he is "too lonesome," but Ann Eliza refuses him and encourages him to marry Evelina. At one point, Evelina's lack of a dowry jeopardizes the marriage, but Ann Eliza offers her sister the $200 she has laboriously saved, and Ramy marries Evelina. The couple move to St. Louis, where Ramy has great job opportunities, leaving Ann Eliza to run the shop. The shop deteriorates, and Ann Eliza must sell her possessions to stay alive.

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