There followed some confusion about the purpose of their visit. Mrs. Darling, surveying Freda, offered to “solve” her “problem,” and it took some time before their new landlady understood that the “problem” was the difficulty of finding lodgings. She laughed—a grating, humourless kind of sound—and said, “Well, as it happens, you’re in luck. A room in the attic’s just been vacated.”
