at the sprawling mansion with its hundreds of mullioned windowpanes glittering in the late afternoon sunshine. Screaming with laughter, children scrambled up the stately maples and pelted one another with pine cones gathered beneath the towering evergreens. Women stopped to stare at the wanton beauty of dozens of multicolored roses filling beds along the walls. The men assessed the number of lifetimes they would have to work at current wages to earn a structure only half as magnificent as this one.
Georgina scrubbed away a tear and marched up the front steps. She tried the door and finding it locked, she removed a key from her pocket and unlocked it. With a welcoming gesture she bade them enter.
The crowd held back. Noting the tremble of Georgina's lower lip, Daniel caught Audrey and Janice by the arms and led them up the stairs to join her. Their aunt followed with Douglas and Betsy.
"We need food and drink," Daniel whispered to Georgina. "What do you think they have in the kitchen?"
Georgina instantly beamed again. "Punch by the gallons. I'll see about food."
The Harrisons were staring in stunned awe at the gleaming foyer, their gazes sweeping from the crystal gaslights on the walls to the delicate Aubusson carpets covering polished oak floors. Even though he was familiar with the comfortable homes in the neighborhood in St. Louis where he had grown up, Daniel still found himself impressed with the extent of the riches displayed in Georgina's home. And he had brought her to live with him in an empty warehouse. He was just beginning to realize the enormity of his folly.
Terrified servants began scampering through the hall with buckets of punch and trays of crystal glasses and cups under Georgina's direction. Daniel imagined all that expensive glassware in the hands of children who had scarcely known anything better than a tin cup and shuddered. But it was doubtful that the Hanover household had anything so humble as tin cups, so he let them pass. He'd figure out how to pay for the damage later.
"Audrey, you and Douglas see everyone receives a cup. Janice and I better go back to the kitchen and see what we can do to help Georgie. Our guests deserve a little refreshment for their hard work, don't you think?"
Jarred from their stunned awe by this request that spoke to their inbred courtesy, the Harrisons immediately threw themselves into the spirit of the occasion. Within the half hour, the front lawn was filled with women sitting in spread skirts, men crouched and sitting crosslegged, and children capering over the grass, all snacking on tiny sandwiches and sipping at fruit punch while admiring the summer beauty of this parklike yard.
"Just imagine how many people we could crowd onto my father's front lawn," Daniel mused out loud as he sat on the front step, munching a sandwich much too delicate for his tastes. He peeled open the bread and tried to identify the pastel-colored paste, wrinkled his nose, and gallantly bit into it.
"The whole Independence Day parade." Georgina didn't dare look at Janice as she made this pronouncement. Ideas were spinning in her head so fast she didn't dare look at herself.
"We won't change anything," Janice replied gloomily. "We can't stay here. Someone will call the police sooner or later. Everyone will go home shortly, and we'll still be out of a house."
"As far as that goes, Mulloney will probably come to take possession of this place as soon as he finds out we're here, but at least we're here for the night. It's a pity we can't keep everyone here. I'd like to see him throw everybody out."
Even as Georgina said it, they could see people drifting out through the gates, seeking their homes before it grew too dark. It had been a spectacular gesture and a kind of holiday for otherwise humdrum lives, but it wasn't reality. Reality was waking up in the morning and wondering where the money was coming from for the next meal.
The Harrisons' store of possessions was unloaded and left in tidy piles on the porch where they wouldn't get wet if it stormed. What had made such a magnificent parade now seemed pitifully small and shabby in comparison to the grand structure around them, but no comments were made. Each person depositing another small piece of the past shook one of the small family's hands, made comforting gestures, and disappeared into the growing dusk.
"I've put Betsy and your aunt to bed in the nursery," Georgina said