“He was seeing what he could make me do by smiling like that. He had been spending his whole nap time practicing smiling, lying in wait. He didn’t need a mirror. Robbie knew exactly how he looked, from when he was eighteen months. Our darling knew too much, and at the strangest angle, from the start. Seeing how much could a smile like that get him! The answer, of course, was—anything. Hartley, you might not know that he got into a little trouble way back when. Had certain scrapes, unexpected as it was, with drink.”

“Yes, I heard him talk about that.”

“But I’ve had no shopping time, what with our just getting home two days before … this day. Anyway, it’s not like out East. We don’t have one shop fine enough to sell me a dress that’s good enough for Robert’s … taste.”

“Beka, you don’t have to talk, sweet. Young Hartley here doesn’t need to be entertained all day.”

“I know. But I like to now. You were very kind to us in New York, and even before we knew what was going to have to happen. I hope we were all right back there. When you were so late, meeting us at his place, I hope we didn’t seem snappish …”

“I was running just eleven minutes behind …”

“Yes, it’s all right. Now I wish we’d flown out East for his concert, and with Aaron Copland, too. It was so foolish of us. You get busy and cannot see past Wednesday choir practice. Was it … really good?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Where is that plane?—I know young Angela will look fetching today. She looked so well when we last saw her in New York. She wore old-fashioned pearls out to dinner with us, very smart against her dark clothes. Very old-fashioned and tailored I would say. She seems so organized. Unlike me, she will know just how to do all this. I mean, to be in Berlin one day, and here for his service that same long day. In New York, she seemed so ‘put together’ as the fashion articles all call it now. She was Robert’s ideal, really, wasn’t she, Hartley? At one time, I’d hoped they would … But I’m not modern, I never understood all that much of what was really going on, I guess. But I think she’s like the young Audrey Hepburn. She will be collected in a way I want to learn from. You see, that’s it, I am trying to enjoy and learn now from his friends, Robert’s. Our boy was always fortunate in his friends. Good judgment. Good judgment, right, Bob?” She touched my shoulder and I nearly leapt. She was trying to straighten my jacket collar, which I think, did not strictly need straightening.