Recognize this passage?

[Ron Mexico]

I was wondering if any of you had any idea where this came from; I have been asked to identify where this came from by someone from overseas and have never heard of anything that sounds like it:

Without turning her head she said. Are you going to stay to supper? He was not, he answered, waking suddenly. She did not rise with him, did not turn her head, and he let himself out the front door and into the late spring twilight, where was already a faint star above the windless trees. On the drive just without the garage, Harry's new car stood. At the moment he was doing something to the engine of it while the house-yard-stable boy held a patent trouble-lamp above the beetling crag of his head, and his daughter and Rachel, holding tools or detached sections of the car's vitals, leaned their intent dissimilar faces across his bent back and into the soft bluish glare of the light. Horace went on homeward. Twilight, evening, came swiftly.

She's doing a thesis on western literature, and wants to use this passage, but can't without a source. My meager attempts to Google this came up flat. Any chance any of you have seen this somewhere before? Sorry to ask, but if any board is going to know the answer, this is it.

Thanks in advance whether you know or not,

Chris (Ron Mexico)

[miss_american_pie]

1. Do you have anything else to go on?

Genre? Is this current?

[Ron Mexico]

2. Sorry, that's the whole thing. My guess is that it isn't

very current, given the vocab used.

I don't expect to ever find out what this is, but I promised her I'd give it an honest shot.

[miss_american_pie]

3. I'm sorry, I'm not having much luck

And if it's a translation, it'd be quite difficult to find.

[Ron Mexico]

4. I really appreciate your trying.

I wasn't expecting anything, but I usually answer this girl's questions without a problem. Eventually she had to stump me, but I wasn't expecting to get smoked like this.

Thanks anyway, it was nice of you to try. :)

[DS1]

5. I'm just replying to this thread so someone else

who's likely your best chance *IMO* of knowing this will find it :D

[SOteric]

6. Hrmmm.. Could be Lillian Hellman's

The Little Foxes or William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.

[Orrex]

7. I don't think there's a Rachel in Yoknapatawpha County

Most vexing. Must search further...

[LostinVA]

8. The writing reminds me of Fitzgerald's

But I don't recognize any of the characters' names.

[miss_american_pie]

10. I don't "hear" Fitzgerald, but maybe Flannery O'Conner?

No, that's not it either. Hmmm.

[azmouse]

9. Two sites that might provide some help:

www.Bartleby.com and www.online-literature.com

[Ron Mexico]

11. I really appreciate all of this, guys, thanks.

The search continues, but without all of you it would have ground to a halt.