I can't think how they manage to live at all.
-- Constantia

Importance: In the beginning of the story, Josephine and Constantia are discussing what to do with their father's top hat when they hear a mouse. Constantia pities the mouse and wonders if it will be able to find any crumbs. When she makes this remark about mice to Josephine, the story suggests a parallel between the sisters and the mouse, as the sisters are now desperate and lost in the wake of their father's death.

He lay there, purple, a dark, angry purple in the face, and never even looked at them when they came in. Then, as they were standing there, wondering what to do, he had suddenly opened one eye. Oh, what a difference it would have made, what a difference to their memory of him, how much easier to tell people about it, if he had only opened...
-- Narrator