At one point he was unable not to notice the tears in his wife’s eyes when she noticed how the girl stared in awe at the food that was laid out, as though she had never before laid eyes on a proper supper.
The girl’s table-manners were awful, a fact which everyone tactfully ignored. Evidently she hadn’t the vaguest notion how to properly hold or use her utensils, clutching knife and fork in her fists, using her fingers as a “pusher,” not cutting her meat into bit-size pieces or using a napkin.
‘All in good time,’ he thought to himself. ‘She’s still young. There’s still time enough to bring her up proper. That is, unless she’s acquired some really bad habits we don’t know about.’
Sometime after supper Marion came down the stairs and found the girl in the sitting-room alone watching television.
‘Now, then,’ she said, sitting beside the girl, ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve gone through your things. Unless there’s something you really want to keep, I’m going to toss the lot.’
The girl stared apprehensively. ‘What? What am I going to wear?’
‘A few of Sabrina’s hand-me-downs for the moment,’ Marion told her, ‘until we get you something better. But for now, go up to the bathroom. You’ll find a big blue towel with a small hand towel and facecloth on the rack to the right of the bathtub. That’ll be your spot. Under the mirror you’ll find a blue toothbrush hanging. That’s yours as well. On the counter beside the sink you’ll find some toiletry items: a hairbrush, comb, nail-clippers, that sort of thing. And on top of the hamper you’ll find a pair of slippers, a bathrobe and a flannel nightie.