Miss Strangeworth is proud of the fact that, in her seventy-one years of life, she has never been outside of this town for more than one day. She knows everyone in town and it follows that most people know her. When she goes to the store, many people stop to say hello:
When she came into the grocery, half a dozen people turned away from the shelves and counters to wave at her or call out good morning.
Outwardly, Miss Strangeworth is very polite and amiable with those she encounters. To everyone else, she is a nice, old woman who has been living in town for nearly a century. She exchanges pleasantries with Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Harper. It is only in her own mind that she expresses criticism of other people. Miss Strangeworth tells Helen Crane not to worry about her baby, but she will later compose a letter criticizing the Crane's for even having a baby. She writes anonymous letters criticizing all of these people. Given that she is always friendly and pleasant in person, no one in town suspects that she might be the one writing these letters. It is not until she drops a letter and the Harris boy delivers it to Don Crane that anyone in town knows that she is behind these letters. Miss Strangeworth looks for the "possibility of evil" in others. But when the Cranes discover she is the author of the letters, they finally discover the possibility of evil in her.
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