[2] "Old Mortality" (The Southern Review, Spring 1937) "Noon Wine" (Signatures, Spring 1936) "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" (The Southern Review, Winter 1938) Although the three short novels in this collection have been described as novellas, Porter referred to them as short novels.

"[7] Lewis Gannett in the New York Herald Tribune wrote: "Miss Porter writes little, and the subtlety of her art conceals its real strength: but she remains, after more than a decade in which she has baffled critics, one the great contemporary American writers.

"[8] Biographer Darleen Harbour Unrue observed that Porter's short fiction received greater critical approval when they appeared in collections "that revealed their thematic integration.

In the course of the narrative, Miranda becomes sick and delirious, but recovers, only to find that Adam has died of the disease, which he likely caught while tending to her.

Porter herself lived for a time in Denver, where she wrote reviews for the Rocky Mountain News and was stricken with influenza.

Porter herself said that the title story was about the pale rider, Death, who takes away an entire era, as illustrated in the ironic last line: "Now there would be time for everything."