As well as leit motif I suspect; the recurrence of a “looking glass,” a mirror. In this section of the narrative, the point of view has remained as first person, but the narrator has changed to be the narrator’s husband. We find out that the whirlwind romancing of Antoinette was an arrangement that he agreed to for money. On their honeymoon, as they are staying at a mountainside home of Antoinette’s that still, while shabby, has servants and is in a beautiful natural setting, she tells her new husband of a memory she has of this place:
“And then suddenly I was awake. I saw two enormous rats, as big as cats, on the sill staring at me.”
“I’m not astonished that you were frightened.”
“But I was not frightened. That was the strange thing. I stared at them and they did not move. I could see myself in the looking-glass the other side of the room, in my white chemise with a frill round the neck, staring at those rats and the rats quite still, staring at me.” (p. 82)
Earlier we had Antoinette’s description of the moment after the fire as she watched Tia after the girl had thrown a rock at her:
“We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking glass.”
And there are a few other references to mirrors. What I find interesting is that while the looker sees himself, and in Antoinette’s early scenario, believes Tia to be herself, a mirror is in fact the exact opposite of what we are. Simply put, our left side is our right side as we view it; very different from what others see us to be.
Is the looking glass then a metaphor for illusion? for hope or belief that we’ve no reason to take as reality?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology