Splendors and Glooms Chapter 8 Summary

At the Home of Mrs. Pinchbeck

  • Grisini and the children rent a flat in a house owned by a woman named Mrs. Pinchbeck, who happens to have way too many pets. No, seriously: She has five dogs, two cats, a parrot, and a canary.
  • Lizzie Rose is in charge of walking the dogs, and she is super fond of one in particular, a little spaniel named Ruby who sleeps with her.
  • Grisini sleeps in a bedroom while the children stay in the parlor. Parsefall makes a little nest on the floor next to the fire, and this is where he sleeps every night. Lizzie, on the other hand, has fashioned a tiny, makeshift room for herself out of walls of rubbish.
  • She's fast asleep when, all of a sudden, the dogs start to bark. Parsefall runs to her and tells her that there are "coppers"—or policemen—outside. He starts frantically fixing up his little bed.
  • Grisini calls them downstairs and tells them to speak to the police, who are waiting to question them. They ask the children about whether or not they performed at the Wintermute home the previous day.
  • Then, the policemen ask them if Clara seemed lonely enough to run away from home. Lizzie Rose says that there's no way she would run away—she was a young lady with a family.
  • Parsefall pipes up and says that maybe Clara has gone because she didn't want to live with all of those dead kids and the reminders of them all over the place.
  • The policemen say that they'd like to have a look around the rooms just to make sure that Clara isn't hidden in the house somewhere.
  • They search around but come up empty-handed. The policeman tells them both that if they have any information on Clara's whereabouts, they need to come to the police station. There's even a reward for information.