My mother telephoned twice that day and once the next morning. I did not answer. On the third call, she left a message on the machine in the hall, and I played it standing in the kitchen with a cup of tea going cold in my hand.
"Vivienne, this is your mother. I don't know what has gotten into you, leaving a party like that and refusing to return calls. Marguerite is very upset. We are still a family, and we will behave like one. Dinner on Thursday at seven. Your sister will be there with Charles. Please come and let us put this behind us."
She said your sister will be there with Charles as if that were the point, as if the point were not that they would both be wearing things that belonged to me.
On Thursday I went, because I wanted to see the room and to hear them talk, and because I h
