Summary

Iris, Ruth, Phillip, and the children are back in Dorset, England in 1952. Mrs. Betts, Ruth’s hired help, has come back to live with them. Iris and Phillip are married, and they have decided to live at Honeysuckle Cottage rather than Highcliffe because it is what the children are most familiar with. They go to school in Dorset. Iris is able to get a lot of rest because Ruth, Mrs. Betts, and a hired nurse take care of much to be done. Iris insists she is better “thanks to good capitalist penicillin” (424). Still, she is pampered.

On this particular day, Iris is sketching Phillip’s sailboat for him. She has a difficult time because she does not understand boats. If she cannot understand how they work, she has trouble understanding how to draw them. She speaks with Ruth and Ruth confirms that she knows...