She thought it was a strange arrangement, but was not prepared to argue about it.
She did, however, feel uncomfortable because she was facing all her husband’s relatives and she thought that now she was seated they deliberately looked away from her, as if they did not wish to be accused of being too inquisitively avaricious.
There was a pencil and a small pad in front of her on which she supposed she was expected to make notes.
Instead, as the Solicitor started speaking, she began to doodle, conscious that it gave her an excuse for bending her head and not looking at the relatives listening attentively to every word.
“I much regret,” the Solicitor was saying in his crisp English voice, “that I was unable to be here for the funeral of my most respected client, Mr. Silas P. Vanderhault,
