I knew he didn’t and it was my fault. I hadn’t attempted to provide my children with any religious education, and neither had Jack. For a while we saw to it that Duff said the Lord’s Prayer before going to bed at night, but by the time he was six we had begun to neglect that and we never started it with Franny. They both had vague notions about the origins of Christmas and Easter, and that, I assumed, was about the extent of their religious knowledge. On the other hand, we thought we had instilled in them the elements of morality. They supposedly knew the difference between right and wrong. Still, I felt guilty about not doing more.

“I know I’m to blame, Duff,” I said. “You were never properly guided, I guess. We’ll try to do something about it when we get home.”

“As a matter of fact, I know about the Ten Commandments and Judeo-­Christian ethics and all that. We had History of the Middle East last year in school.”

“I’m afraid more than that is needed.”

While he carried the remaining bags to the bedrooms, I went to the kitchen and made sandwiches for Franny and me. It seemed that Stephanie had fixed dinner as usual for Jack and Duff.

Later Franny went to Jack’s bedroom to sit with him a while, and I did the washing up. It was almost dark and I was turning on the lights when Stephanie rapped at the back door and came in. She seemed agitated, even more so when she saw me. I hadn’t liked her much, but I felt sorry for her now.

“Did you have a nice walk, Stephanie?” I said.

“It was all right,” she said. Her head was jerking, as though she felt compelled to examine every corner of the room.

“Would you like some coffee? Franny doesn’t drink it, and I made too much for myself.”

“All right.” She was trembling, although it was a warm night and she was wearing a sweater.

I poured her coffee. “Where did you go on your walk?”

“Nowhere in particular. Up the road a bit.”

“I’ve been walking quite a lot myself since we came here. Sometimes I take that path down to the woods.”

“At night?”

“At twilight sometimes. It’s nice then when the birds are going to sleep.”

“You shouldn’t walk down there at night.”

“I suppose it isn’t too safe. It would be easy to trip over something and break a leg. Then you’d have two cripples on your hands.” I sat down across from her. “I know what happened yesterday, Stephanie, and I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t blame Duff too much.”

“We do blame him, and it seems we must blame you too, if you’re implying that you encouraged him.”