English (Core) · Ch 13 — The Address
Summary of the Lesson
Summary of the Lesson
The story opens after the War. The narrator knocks at Number 46, Marconi Street and asks the woman who half-opens the door, "Do you still know me?" The woman — Mrs Dorling — coldly says she does not know her, even though she is clearly wearing the narrator's mother's green knitted cardigan. She refuses to let her in, says "It is not convenient for me now," and shuts the door. As the narrator turns away, she notices Mrs Dorling's telling words: "Have you come back? I thought that no one had come back."
The memory of the War years
Walking back to the station, the narrator recalls how she first learnt of Mrs Dorling. During the first half of the War, on a visit home, she had noticed that things were missing from the rooms. Her mother explained that an old acquaintance, Mrs Dorling, had renewed contact after many years and now came regularly, each time carrying away something valuable — the table silver, antique plates, large vases, crockery. Mrs Dorling had herself offered, even insisted, to "save all my nice things," saying that if the family had to leave they would otherwise lose everything. The trusting mother would hear no criticism of her. The narrator remembers glimpsing Mrs Dorling once — a woman with a broad back, a brown coat and a shapeless hat — struggling out with a heavy suitcase, and her mother telling her the address: "In Marconi Street. Number 46. Remember that."
The second visit
After the Liberation, the narrator had at first felt no wish to reclaim the stored things, and was even afraid of them. Only gradually, as life returned to normal, did curiosity draw her back. On her second visit, a girl of about fifteen — Mrs Dorling's daughter — opens the door and lets her wait inside. In the living room the narrator is horrified: she is surrounded by all her mother's possessions, but crammed together in an ugly, tasteless arrangement in a muggy-smelling room. She recognises the woollen table-cloth and finds on its edge the old, unrepaired burn mark; she sees the familiar still-life picture and the white teapot with its gold-bordered lid. The girl, unaware of the objects' history, chatters about how "antique" they are and how the family uses them for everything.