Josephine

Josephine Pinner is the eldest of the two Pinner sisters. She lives with her sister, Constantia, and their housekeepers, Kate, in the house in which they grew up. After her father's death, Josephine is haunted by his memory. She worries constantly that he will be watching them from beyond the grave and that he will not approve of their behavior. When the sisters go into their father's room to clean out his possessions, Josephine is convinced that her father is hiding in the chest of drawers, and she cannot bear to continue the task. Josephine is, like her sister, indecisive and ambivalent about most of the decisions they must make. She wishes to live in ignorance about the fracturing that took place among their family before her father's death. At the end of the story, Josephine wonders what her life would be like if her mother had not...