It was Ninian Deacon, Dwight's
brother.
Every day since his coming had been announced Lulu, dusting the parlour,
had seen the photograph looking at her with its eyes somehow new. Or
were her own eyes new? She dusted this photograph with a difference,
lifted, dusted, set it back, less as a process than as an experience. As
she dusted the mirror and saw his trim semblance over against her own
bodiless reflection, she hurried away. But the eyes of the picture
followed her, and she liked it.
She dusted the south window-sill and saw Bobby Larkin come round the
house and go to the wood-shed for the lawn mower. She heard the smooth
blur of the cutter. Not six times had Bobby traversed the lawn when Lulu
saw Di emerge from the house. Di had been caring for her canary and she
carried her bird-bath and went to the well, and Lulu divined that Di had
deliberately disregarded the handy kitchen taps. Lulu dusted the south
window and watched, and in her watching was no quality of spying or of
criticism.
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