Someone to watch over me

nobody knows it, but everyone does. She keeps her light under a basket.“
    “Has she lived in Voorburg a long time?”
    Nina thought about it for a bit. “She has. But I think her first husband and the girl came here around 1922. They’d lived in one of those cold states north of here before. Vermont, maybe.”
    “What girl is that?“
    “A relative of her husband. I think his sister’s child. The parents had died in a traffic accident, and Bernard—her first husband—felt they should take her in to raise. Oh, the battles! Edith never had a child of her own and was delighted to have a daughter to mold.“
    “Then why were there battles?“
    “The girl—I think her name was Isabel or Elizabeth—was already about fifteen or sixteen and didn’t want to be what Edith wanted.“ She lifted a chunk of Lily’s ragged bangs and peered at them. “Edith wanted to make her into one of those debutantes. She was always nagging her husband to get them an apartment in New York or Chicago where she could introduce the girl to society. Neither her husband nor the girl liked the idea.“
    “Is she still around? The girl, I mean.“
    “No, when Edith’s husband died so tragically, the girl was of age and bolted. It was ungrateful of her. Edith meant well. She could have arranged a good marriage for the girl to a rich man. The girl was pretty enough to be a debutante and had lovely manners and a sense of style. Edith was crushed when she ran off.“
    “What a shame,“ Lily said. “I’d like the bangs to grow out. Don’t cut them short, if you don’t mind. What do you mean about Edith’s first husband dying tragically?”
    Nina set about working on the back of Lily’s hair. “It’s a little wavy back here. We won’t need much more curl. The husband died in some sort of water accident way out west. If I’m remembering right, a train he was on went into some big river that was flooding. Almost all the bodies were washed away or trapped in the train underwater. There wasn’t a funeral, just a private memorial service at Edith’s home. And the moment it was over the girl called a taxi and had him carry her away with trunks full of the lovely clothes Edith had bought her.“
    “How awful for Edith.“
    “Nobody ever heard from her again. Edith was slim and pretty then and married Henry White quite soon after. I think she still hoped to have a child of her own to raise. But there never was one.”
    Lily found herself wondering if Phoebe knew all this. Phoebe pretty much refused to gossip.
    “What’s Mrs. Rismiller like? She was so quiet at the two meetings I’ve been to. She seems like a nice woman, but she always looks so tired.“
    “It’s not easy being a minister’s wife. And she didn’t intend to be one,“ Nina said. “They married young, when Mr. Rismiller was in college studying to be a doctor, and suddenly he changed his mind after the marriage and wanted to be a minister. Poor Peggy had no choice in the matter. I don’t think she quite believes what happened to her life.“
    “Do they have children?“ Lily asked.
    “Only one son, and he’s gone off the rails. He was going to follow in his father’s footsteps but got tangled up in some weird religion that his parents don’t approve of. Fortunately he doesn’t visit them often, but when he does he always tries to convert them to his views, which Mrs. Rismiller says are too bizarre to even grasp. Now let’s get the rollers in and you’ll sit over there where the electric machine is. It won’t take long. Your hair has a bit of curl to start with. I’ll put a fan on you to keep you cool as soon as I get you hooked up to the electricity. I do a very good mar-ceiling, you know.“
    “What do you mean by hooking up to the electricity?“ Lily said with alarm.
    “Oh, it’s a very low current, they tell me. It just warms up the metal curlers a bit.“
    “I’m not sure about this. I think I’d rather just pull my hair back and do the curls in rags like usual.”
    Nina was disappointed, but she said, “Well, maybe next time you come in you’ll want to try it.”
    Highly unlikely, Lily thought. That thing looks like the electric chair at Sing Sing. Then she laughed at herself. She’d never seen the electric chair, but this horrible machine of Nina’s must look like it.
    “I feel so sorry for Mrs. Anderson, losing her husband,“ Lily said, as Nina started brushing out her hair and using a hot crimping iron.
    “I do too. But I