Nora Webster

When Nora’s Aunt Josie visits without warning, Nora awkwardly welcomes her inside, leaving the boys to watch television. While Maurice was dying, Josie took care of Conor and Donal at her house, and it was only after returning from Josie’s house that Donal developed a stammer. Nora has noticed that his stammer becomes more pronounced in Josie’s presence. Now, as Josie talks, Nora fantasizes about living in a town “where no one could visit them” (31). Josie presents a collection of old photographs, and Nora recognizes her parents. She remembers being beside her father’s bed when he died. She was alone, though the family later convinced themselves that everyone was gathered around him when he passed. Nora and Josie talk about Nora’s mother, who struggled to raise three daughters—Nora, Una, and Catherine—in the aftermath of her husband’s death. Nora always had a difficult relationship with her mother.

Later, Nora watches over her sleeping boys. In the night, she is awakened by a scream; Donal has suffered a nightmare. As she comforts Donal, Conor tells her that Donal moans every night. Donal refuses to describe his nightmare, and Nora worries that Josie’s visit might have affected the boys somehow. She resolves to speak to Josie about the issue.

Fiona visits and watches the boys while Nora visits Josie. As Nora drives, she thinks about the two months that Donal and Conor spent with Josie because Nora had not wanted them to see their father in his dying state. Una, Nora’s youngest sister, had moved into the house and looked after Aine and Fiona.

Nora finds Josie in the garden. Over tea, Nora struggles to voice her concerns and mentions Donal’s stammer. Josie explains that the boys were not used to the silence of her countryside house, stating that they were waiting for their mother to visit them and break this silence, but she never did. Nora insists that she had “no choice” (45). She leaves without finishing her tea.

Jim is Maurice’s brother and Nora’s brother-in-law. When he and his wife Margaret visit Nora, they share ideas about a memorial for Maurice now that six months have passed since his death. They differ in opinion from Nora on what should be done but reach a compromise. An acquaintance named Mrs. Whelan comes to the house, bringing a message from Nora’s old employers, the Gibneys. The family business has recently passed into the hands of William Gibney, who is married to Peggy. Having heard about Maurice’s death, William has reached out through Mrs. Whelan to find out whether Nora would like to return to work for the company. After Mrs. Whelan departs, Jim notes that the Gibneys are “a force to be reckoned with all right” (49). As he leaves, he slips Nora money inside an envelope to help tide her over. Nora wants to refuse, but she knows that she will need money soon. She remembers her own mother’s struggles with money after her father died. When Nora worked for the Gibneys, she gave most of her wage to her mother to support the family. This arrangement continued for 11 years until she married Maurice; at the time, leaving the Gibneys to become a housewife had seemed an immense relief. Now, to return to work, would be to return “to a memory of being caged” (51).

While having her hair cut, Nora impulsively agrees to have it dyed as well and is shocked by the results, insisting that she has “never had a fashionable cut before” (53). As she walks home, she prays that no one will see her and believe that she has notions of grandeur. When she returns home, Conor and Donal are shocked into silence.

Nora prepares to visit the Gibneys. She worries that everyone in the office will presume that she has only been granted this job out of pity. First, Nora is led into the grand sitting room to meet Peggy Gibney. Nora can remember when Peggy first met William; the Gibney family disapproved of her, and when she became pregnant, William’s father wanted her to have the baby in England, where it could be put up for adoption without causing a scandal. Instead, William married Peggy. These days, however, Peggy feels at home in her wealthy surroundings.

As Nora asks about Peggy’s five children, struggling not to laugh in the “somber air” (57), William enters. Nora recalls that everyone at school had considered him to be a fool. However, now that William has inherited the family business, he is considered to be very important. William mumbles about his late father’s praise of Nora, offering her a job at the company, and Peggy comments negatively about the other women whom they employ. William mentions that they employ Francie Kavanagh, who is now the office manager; Nora is surprised, remembering Francie as an unlikeable young woman whom she did her best to avoid. She is concerned that Francie Kavanagh remembers her. William invites Nora to start the job soon.