He looked at Lena's face and held the quiet.

Mrs. Billy arrived at four-fifteen.

She came with the particular and specific presence she always brought to rooms that required it, the steadiness of her, the sense of a woman who had decided, before she entered, what the situation required and was prepared to provide it. She had a bag. She looked at Julian in the chair and she looked at Lena in the bed and she looked at Nate and she said, "Good afternoon," to the room with the particular and specific warmth of someone addressing everyone at once.

She set her bag down.

She took out, in order: a...