Summary

A week after their father dies, sisters Josephine and Constantia Pinner are still struggling to cope with their loss. One night, while lying in bed, Constantia asks Josephine if they should give their father's top hat to the porter. Josephine has difficulty imagining the porter wearing her father's hat. The image almost makes her laugh, but she fights it back. The two sisters agree that they can decide on what to do with the hat the next day. Next, they discuss whether they should dye their clothes black, because though they are alone in the house, their housekeeper Kate still sees them. The sisters are once again indecisive and confused by the prospect. Suddenly, they hear a mouse in the room. Constantia wonders how mice "manage to live at all" (1).

Their father's nurse, Nurse Andrews, was now staying with them at the...