There were six Madigans. Five was a whole new angle, as he moved the cake slice through the ghost of a cross and then swung it eighteen degrees to the side. It was a prising open of the relations between them. It was a different story altogether. As though there might be any number of Madigans and, out in the wide world, any number of apple tarts.
-- narrator (Hanna)

Importance: In this quote we see Dan, the oldest, cutting the apple tart. With six people in the family, the tart is divided easily and equally, but if Dan leaves for the seminary, there will only be five. This is the first moment when Hannah realizes that her family is not a thing that can remain as it is. Her understanding of her family as an unbroken whole--the six of them--changes at this point, as she realizes people will leave and may not return...