Unnamed Negro Maid

According to Temple's account of her six weeks in the Memphis "sporting house," the establishment's "Negro maid" is both her guard and the one person with whom she could "talk" (111-12). When Temple introduces her into her account, she falters briefly in the middle of a sentence that begins "Yes, that's why - " (112); the sentence is not completed, but seems to suggest that Temple's relationship with this maid explains her decision to hire Nancy later. In Requiem the maid is not given a name, but when she appears in the earlier Sanctuary (1931) and the later The Reivers (1962), her name is Minnie.