Unnamed Europeans

Two of the story's characters spend time in Europe before or after the First World War. This icon represents the various Europeans whom they mention or are associated with during those travels. During the decade Mrs. Harriss and her two children spend in pre-War Europe, the contents of her letters home from Europe relate tales "of the families of the porters and waiters who had been kind or at least gentle with her and the children, and of the postmen who delivered the mail from home" (167). And when Gavin Stevens recalls a certain street in Paris he visited in 1919, he notes that it is so discreet that "its location is known only to garbage collectors and employment bureaus for upper servants and the under secretaries of embassys" (256).