Victoria Summary

Watching a kind-looking woman dote over her father in a coffee bar at Victoria Station, Rose is glad not to see the usual disgruntled travelers and cannot help thinking about her own father. Rose fantasizes about the obviously well-organized daughter's life. They look like people with whom she might converse, but the place is too crowded. Rose is sorry when they head to their train.

Rose wishes that she could take her father, widowed seven years, on vacation in order to thank him for all that he has done for her. Although he is only sixty, he insists that he is a dog too old to learn new tricks. She counters his arguments and knows that he would love to see Paris again because he still pulls out prewar scrapbooks. He had enthusiastically given her advice before her first trip to Paris at...