It was better than many other possibilities, and she fixed her mind on it, so saving herself from other agonizing speculations.

In a fixed imagination lay safety.

In her soul she knew that, no matter what happened, her mother would never return to the Manor Cartier.
The years had not deepened confidence between father and daughter.

A shadow hung between them.

They laughed and talked together, were even boisterous in their fun sometimes, and yet in the eyes of both was the forbidden thing--the deserted city into which they could not enter.