Mrs Dorling

Mrs Dorling is an old acquaintance of the narrator's mother who reappeared after years and renewed contact during the War. She is physically marked by her broad back, a brown coat and a shapeless hat, and by the heavy suitcases and bags she carried away from the mother's house. She is cunning, greedy and opportunistic: under the guise of "saving" the family's valuables from the dangers of the War, she steadily removed the silver, plates, vases and crockery to her own home, even insisting on doing so. After the War she reveals herself to be cold, calculating and dishonest — she refuses to recognise the surviving daughter, denies knowing her while openly wearing the mother's cardigan, and shuts the door with the …