Death Makes Everything Respectable — The Blue Castle

Valancy dresses Cissy's body herself and runs a spotless funeral while Barney covers Cecilia in garden roses and retreats to his island. Deerwood and up back arrive in force; the town forgives Cissy splendidly now that she is dead, and Mr. Bradly's tactful Presbyterian service avoids every awkward truth. Uncle Wellington serves as pall-bearer while the Stirlings attend as strategy: Uncle James believes death has made Valancy's nursing respectable and that she will return home once Cissy is gone.

They mistake Valancy's quiet efficiency for restored compliance; even widower Edward Beck notices her as a possible second wife. Inside, Valancy hates the curious stares, smug singing, and platitudes; she wishes Cissy could lie in the up back burying-ground as she once asked. When the procession leaves, Mrs. Frederick begs her to come home now; Valancy, aproned and exhausted, says she will stay only to put the house in order for a day or two, not to return to Elm Street.

The clan leaves relieved, planning to treat her as if nothing happened, unaware she has already decided her next move. The funeral exposes posthumous respectability: communities rewrite the dead to feel virtuous and use the occasion to reel living rebels back toward the fold.