It was not despair, but it seemed to her as if life were passing by, leaving its promises broken and unfulfilled. Yet there were other days when she listened, was led on and deceived by fresh promises which her youth had held out to her.

[She displayed] what may be described as a native aptitude for narration amounting almost to genius. Her major works were two short story collections Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). The people in her stories are usually inhabitants of Louisiana.