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carrots and tiny pearl onions that nearly melted on the tongue. There were fresh, yeasty rolls, and a salad of tender greens that Lily didn’t recognize. Mimi, wearing one of the dresses that Lily had given her, served the meal, then sat down in the remaining vacant chair.
    Lily was puzzled. Did Mimi live here, too? It wasn’t a question she wanted to ask at the table. She supposed it made sense. But she was the maid. An employee. She was serving the dinner and eating it with them, too. And so were Mr. and Mrs. Prinney employees in a sense. But they were also guests and tenants and their hosts and jailors as well. Lily was going to have to readjust a lot of her ideas of social precedence.
    “What are you grinning about, Lil?“ Robert asked. “About our new ‘family’ around the table here,“ Lily said.
    Everybody beamed. Mr. Prinney loosened up enough to actually smile.
    Talk was general and pleasant. The weather, the progress on the grounds, Mimi’s extravagant appreciation of her new frocks, what should be done to the car to make it usable. Mrs. Prinney asked about Lily and Robert’s food preferences.
    “We’ll eat anything that doesn’t bite us first,“ Robert said.
    While Mrs. Prinney was still laughing uproariously at this, Lily asked Mr. Prinney, “What was the nature of Uncle Horace’s accident? I understand it had something to do with a boat?”
    Silence fell over the table. Mimi looked scared. Mr. Prinney’s face looked like she had asked something indecent and Mrs. Prinney stabbed at a potato which then rolled off her plate, across the tablecloth and plopped onto the floor. She stared down at it for a long moment in preference to meeting anyone else’s gaze.
    Lily was embarrassed yet didn’t know why she should be. Then, realizing that Uncle Horatio was a virtual stranger to her and Robert, but a friend of the others, she started apologizing.
    Mr: Prinney said nothing, but looked as if he was thinking furiously.
    Mrs. Prinney abandoned her study of the escaped potato and cut Lily off. “If everybody’s nearly done, I’ll just pop the pie in the oven for a minute to toast the meringue.“ Robert and Mr. Prinney stood up politely as she rose and departed. Mimi followed her. Robert winked at Lily and resumed his discussion of the car battery with the elderly lawyer.
    After having second helpings of a remarkably good lemon meringue pie, everybody retired to their various pursuits. Mrs. Prinney, floating on a sea of compliments, went back to the kitchen with Mimi. Mr. Prinney said he had some bookkeeping to do and disappeared. Robert went to change his clothes and take another look at the car.
    Lily went to the library and opened the French doors to stand and gaze at the river below. In spite of the heat of August, the trees were still a lush green. There was a breeze off the water that smelled of river, fish, honeysuckle and pines. A person could almost get drunk on a fragrance like that, she thought.
    The door behind her opened and Mrs. Prinney said, “Oh, sorry, dear. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
    “You aren’t disturbing me. Please come in.“ Mrs. Prinney, still perspiring from her kitchen work and redolent of onions and lemons, came to stand beside Lily at the doors. “Lovely sight, isn’t it? When we lived in town, we were too close. Rivers are better from a little distance.“
    “I’m really sorry I asked that tactless question at dinner,“ Lily said.
    “You had no way to know,“ Mrs. Prinney said. “It’s just that Mr. Prinney was on the boat when the accident happened and it’s a bit upsetting to him.”
    “He was on the boat? Oh, if I’d known—“
    “But you didn’t and there’s no reason to fret.“ Her tone was polite and pleasant, but final. It was the end of the discussion.
    “Does Mimi live here?“ Lily asked.
    “I told her she could stay until we had the house all opened up. But it’s up to you, dear, whether she stays on.“
    “Has she a home of her