NIMBUS
23
pretty things he had given her; we knew that I was to have the diamond star, when I grew up, and Betty was to have the pearl and emerald pendant. Only the two brass buttons we might never touch.
We never knew why the brass buttons were so precious. She held them wonderfully as though they were alive.
And we, too we were always happier after we had seen them.
We knew that she felt, somehow, safer.
So did we.
