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Europe was like. At school they had learned that there were kings and queens in Europe, and palaces. They had alsolearned that Europe was very much smaller than America, and much more densely populated. Elizabeth had a mental impression of a glittering ballroom crowded with thousands of people in golden crowns and ermine robes, angrily jostling and pushing each other. No wonder they had wars.
    â€˜You shouldn’t fuss your head thinking about the war,’ said Mrs Patrick, dredging flour across the tabletop. ‘It doesn’t concern us, not one whit. It’s
their
quarrel, the British and the French and the Germans. If Mr Roosevelt has any sense at all, he’ll keep us well out of it. Not that
any
politician has any sense.’
    Father came into the kitchen. His glasses steamed up almost immediately, and he had to take them off.
    â€˜Come on girls, hurry up now. You don’t have all day.’
    â€˜Where’s mommy?’ asked Laura. ‘I haven’t said good morning yet.’
    â€˜Mommy’s okay, you can see her in a minute. Just finish your breakfast and get yourselves dressed.’
    As they climbed back upstairs, they felt a chilly, unsettled atmosphere in the house. There was very little wind, and so the fires had taken a long time to draw. The whole house was hazy with acrid woodsmoke, which made them cough, and being nine and seven they really made a performance of their coughing, rolling around on their beds in their long woolly underwear, spluttering and hacking and wheezing like terminal tuberculosis patients, until father called out to them to shut UP, will you, and get yourselves ready.
    â€˜But it’s so
smoky.
’
    Father was about to say something angry, he hated laying all those goddamned fires in any case, but stopped himself. Instead, he shielded his eyes with his hand in a very curious way; and then took his hand away again, and said, ‘Listen . . . this is going to be a difficult day. It’s going to be a difficult day for mommy and it’s going to be a difficult day for me. I know howclose you both were to Peggy, and that you can still talk to her. But when you’re grown up like mommy and me, you can’t do that any more, don’t ask me why. So for us, Peggy has gone away, completely gone away. We’ve lost her.’
    The girls lay on their beds in their underwear watching him solemnly. He licked his lips quickly (mouth turned dry) and then he said, ‘Today mommy and I have to put our youngest little girl into the ground. That isn’t going to be easy for us; and I hope you’ll understand how we feel, and try to be patient and helpful.’
    Laura said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said father, with his eyes glistening.
    â€˜And suffer the succotash to come unto Me.’
    Father said, ‘What?’
    â€˜It’s all right,’ Elizabeth interrupted. ‘We promise we’ll be helpful.’
    Elizabeth brushed Laura’s hair, a procedure which was always accompanied by a monotonous chorus of ‘ow’, ‘ow’, ‘OW’, ‘
ow
,’ as she cleared out the tangles. Then they dressed in their mourning clothes and stood side by side and looked at themselves in the cheval-glass. Elizabeth thought that they looked as if
they
were dead, too. Their faces were waxy and their eyes were large, and the luminous snow-light surrounded them with a blurry, almost ghostly aura.
    It was then that they glimpsed a shadowy movement in the mirror, which made them jump. They turned around and saw mommy standing in their bedroom doorway. She was dressed in a severe, boxy suit of black moiré silk, with a small upswept black hat and a dense black veil that completely masked her face.
    For a split second, they were very frightened. Mommy was so black, so silent, so faceless. ‘Mommy?’ said Laura, in alarm.
    Mommy moved and when she moved she was just