That it spinster school professor 50 % of defensive and you can half of jealous regarding her younger aunt Lily provides sustained a life of unrequited wants, and also by the time of your tale, provides welcomed their unique solitude and the freedom it provides her to help you travelling, yard, and decorate their short flat. Even in the event she believes it to be a secret, Laverne enjoys reproduced in her rooms a painting one to she dropped crazy about on a journey to help you Holland Pieter’s de Hooch’s Woman and you may Child inside an inside. So you can Laverne, her apartment lets their particular so you’re able to real time within this walls regarding beauty, however, Lily thinks of it as dreary and you can unusual. So you can Claudia, whom acknowledge exactly what Laverne has done, it’s all a little unfortunate. And it is easy to be sad to own Laverne, up to she shows by herself is actually odder than simply she at the very first appears. In choosing Lily’s birthday gift, Laverne resents you to definitely their particular aunt failed to delight in earlier in the day gift ideas (including an abandoned rose-drying package):
Just what irks Laverne was their own sister’s independent streak, their stubborn refusal to take right up a hobby this lady has maybe not selected herself.
I came across one most comedy, and soon after, Laverne recalls a time one to she stressed Lily toward purchasing specific good fresh fruit and you may chocolate one she was selling to passersby. Even when Lily must shell out having a good promissory mention (repaid weekly along with her allotment), also at that time Laverne believe it had been unfair you to Lily been able to buy it the and consume everything herself.