Other people took their troubles to her, but she treated her own daughter like a stranger.

And, of course, she sided with Jonah and talked till her jaw ached about her duty to her child and her husband.

She would have married Tom Mullins if it hadn't been for the kid, and lived in Cardigan Street like her pals.

Her thoughts travelled back to Packard's and the Road.

She remembered with intense longing the group at the corner, the drunken rows, and the nightly gossip on the doorstep.