She has been moving toward Agnes so calmly that her steps resemble nothing so much as the blocked-out pattern of a dance. She reaches Agnes now, takes her hair in one fist with a gentle grip, and then smiles at her. “Your mother was one of us from a young age, you know. She gave us to you,” she says now, “and you to us. It will be very easy, my darling, you mustn’t worry about that.”
