House Taken Over

One day, as the narrator puts on a pot of water for tea, he hears a rustling on the other side of the house, which is connected to the kitchen by a large, mahogany door. The narrator recognizes the sound—"muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over into the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation" (13)—and rushes to slam and bolt locked the mahogany door. When he brings the tray of mate to his sister, he tells her, "I had to shut the door to the passage. They've taken over the back part" (13). Irene seems to know what he means by "they," and momentarily drops her knitting. They both tacitly accept that that side of the house is lost to them. Everything they left on that side—the narrator's books, Irene's slippers and stationary—is lost to them.