In Colorado, Porter herself was unable to secure a hospital bed when she first fell ill, as well as hostility from a panicked landlady who was prepared to kick her out of the house she lived in for fear of other’s discovering her illness. Unable to get an ambulance to take her to a hospital, Adam stays by her side to take care of her. The story progresses and Miranda’s illness takes center stage, suddenly and gravely. I’d like to run away,” she told him “let’s both.” (Porter, Katherine Anne Pale Horse, Pale Rider 202)

“Yes, tomorrow, unless something else happens. “I do too,” he said “let’s do that tomorrow.” “I wish we were going to spend the whole afternoon on a park bench,” she said, “or drive to the mountains.” Miranda listened for a moment to the rattle of typewriters above, the steady rumble of presses below. They stopped as always at the open door before the flight of littered steps leading up to the newspaper loft. “I don’t know,” she said slowly, her voice sounding small and thin.

But since when? You were all right yesterday.” “The weather is perfect,” said Adam, “and the war is simply too good to be true. It can’t just be the weather, and the war.” “There’s something terribly wrong,” she told Adam. She shows signs of exhaustion, uneasiness, and alienation that slowly builds until Miranda’s illness is fully revealed. There are also growing signs of Miranda’s own illness. Did you ever see so many funerals, ever?” (Porter, Katherine Anne Pale Horse, Pale Rider 200) “It seems to be a plague,” said Miranda, “something out of the Middle Ages. The men are dying like flies out there, anyway. “They just gave it,” said Adam, “for no reason. “How did you manage to get an extension of leave?” However, for Miranda and Adam, as seen in the following exchange, the horrors of the coming pandemic are not yet fully realized: At the same time, massive deaths overseas from the First World War adds to the tragic and morbid presence of death throughout the story. Sickness is a foreboding presence as the story begins, with only passing, nonchalant references to the growing pandemic. Their romance is cut short when Miranda falls seriously ill from influenza during the growing pandemic. In the story, Miranda Gay is a young reporter for a Denver newspaper who meets Adam Barclay, a soldier who is about to leave for the war. The plot contains clear parallels to Porter’s life. in 1975, Porter referred to “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” as “a purely biographical story” (Porter, Katherine Anne to Alfred W.

Pale rider flu