cross-legged before the dappled tree trunk , amid the dust and buzzing bugs , she told her story in long , formal cadences , like a holy man rolling out a parable : how shed introduced herself to hammond and questioned him about things spiritual ; how kind hed been and patient ; how hed offered her a job and how fulfilled shed been working for him ; how their rapport had grown and how , at length , in a natural convergence of body and spirit , they had become completely one .