She is helpless and now realizes that she is truly in need of saving. Now, O'Connor seems to be suggesting, she is actually in a position where the Word of God, which actually does promise salvation, may come to her. It speaks of the virtue of humility, which she is now in a position to develop -- not because she realizes it as of yet but because she is humiliated and may now move in that direction. This is her revelation: she is like Saul knocked off his high horse. Saul converts. But the conversion is another story -- not the one described here in Joy-Hulga's story. She may convert from her atheism. That is certainly one possibility.

For now the story ends. As it begins with Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell, so too does it end. They see the Bible-salesman departing from a distance and recount their favorite phrases....
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