Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín

spoken, had been transmitted to her sister. Catherine went to a large fridge in the pantry.
    “I have hamburgers,” she said, “and I could fry some potatoes. Would they like that? And would you like a steak, Nora, or I coulddo a couple of chops? And why don’t the boys have their tea in the television room?”
    “Whatever is easy,” Nora said.
    When Dilly Halpin arrived, Nora took over the cooking as the other two women studied the instruction manual for the washing machine. She ignored them as they began to manipulate the various knobs and concentrated fully on the task in hand. It would suit Catherine, she saw, were she to offer to have her tea in the room where the children were. She was determined to make no such offer and waited to cook her own food until she had served Donal and Conor and made sure they had everything they needed.

    Once the washing machine had been got going, and Dilly Halpin had re-assured Catherine that the drier was simple, that it was merely a question of turning it on and off, Dilly sat down at the kitchen table as Catherine moved about. When Nora offered to make them tea, they accepted. Once the chops were cooked she brought them over to the table with brown bread and butter. She poured the tea when it was ready. She did not know if it was her presence that made the conversation awkward, almost stilted. It seemed to Nora that Catherine and Dilly were performing lines for her benefit rather than actually talking to each other. They discussed an auction they had both attended, an auction of the contents of a large house outside Thomastown.
    “You know, I bid for a pair of fire irons,” Dilly said, “they were eighteenth century, but I didn’t get them. There was a dealer from Dublin bidding against me. I gave him the dirtiest looks but it was no use. You did better, Catherine, with that lovely rug. Where are you going to put it?”
    “I’m going to surprise Mark,” Catherine said, “and put it in the bedroom. I’ll have to get help, because some of it will have to go under the bed. I hope he notices, that’s all I have to say.”
    “And the auction went on so long that I needed to go to the bathroom,” Dilly said, “and I decided I would go into the big house, so I took down the notice that said ‘No Entry. House Strictly Private’ and I marched in and wasn’t I on my way up the stairs looking for a bathroom when I was caught by this old Protestant woman, someone’s maiden aunt by the look of her. I said that I just had to go to the bathroom and I couldn’t find any other convenience and she told me that I could go anywhere I liked between Thomastown and Inistioge, but I was to come down those stairs right now. And she began to move towards me, the old battle-axe. I was in such a rage that when I was driving out of the estate and I saw a field full of sheep, I got out of the car and I opened the gate.”
    “You did quite right,” Catherine said.
    “I did, and I hope they are still looking for those sheep. The rudeness of that woman! They think they still own the country!”
    “You don’t know what it’s like around here,” Catherine said to Nora.
    “That woman is lucky I didn’t buy the fire irons and have them with me. I don’t know what I would have done with them.”
    As Dilly grew in indignation, and was joined by Catherine, Nora began to laugh.
    “It’s just the thought of the fire irons,” she said.
    She stood up from the table, still laughing. She saw that Catherine’s face had become red and she seemed to be clenching her jaw. Nora checked that the boys and their cousins were still watching television and then went to the bathroom and stayed there until she was sure that she would not need to laugh again. When she feltthat she could genuinely control herself, she went back to find that Dilly Halpin had left. Catherine became busy around the kitchen, and, even when Mark came in, Nora was aware that Catherine was barely speaking to her. This made Nora