In the nursery the children were arguing over the Monopoly board, Alice delivering a magisterial lecture on the significance of passing Go. Henry was insisting on circling the board counterclockwise. Peggy smiled, still holding my hand, but when I touched her thigh she pushed me away.

“Peggy…”

“I know. Deep in the underwear something stirred. I have to go.”

“Stay the night. Why not?”

She picked up her handbag. “I’m due back at Guy’s. Besides, those dreams are just for you…”

I waited while she said goodbye to the children. Had she guessed that I would be impotent and decided to spare my feelings? We had been too close to each other in Lunghua, forced into a child marriage that revealed too many flaws and limits.

She held my hand through the window of her car, one of the first Japanese imports, an engagingly odd choice. “You’re fine—the children have looked after you wonderfully. I’ve talked to Alice and Lucy and they’re going to make sure you go out more often.”

I watched her drive erratically away. Of course she was right: it was the children who were bringing me up. They had come to terms with the past far more quickly than their father. I had emptied the wardrobes of Miriam’s clothes, but I sometimes noticed that prying little fingers had teased the hem of a skirt through the lid of the suitcases where I stored them. One afternoon, while repairing the fence, I was aware that the children were unnaturally quiet. Climbing the stairs, I saw them in my bedroom. They had found Miriam’s wedding dress, which Alice now wore, tottering on her high-heeled shoes as Lucy played a bridesmaid holding the train. Henry wore my old Panama hat and dinner jacket. Bursting with glee, they paraded around the bed, bowing and curtseying through a mock marriage ceremony. Then Alice stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes, while Lucy and Henry folded the bedspread around her, solemnly laying her to rest.

Watching them without a word, I crept down the stairs, knowing that they had recovered. An hour later the dress had been carefully returned to the suitcase. A few flecks of confetti shaken loose from its hem lay on the bedroom carpet beside my slippers.