Rooftoppers

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination.

Packing light to disguise their intentions, Sophie and Charles slip out of the house the next day in broad daylight. Charles brings only a briefcase, and Sophie brings her cello, stuffing clothes into the case. At the train station, Charles reserves them separate compartments for safety. Sophie’s special, child-sized train compartment is luxurious. At Dover, they board a boat for the crossing, which reminds her unnervingly of the long-ago shipwreck. Charles distracts her by calling attention to the “murmuration” of the sea and wind, which he says is a good omen.

At Paris’s Gare du Nord train station, Charles further calms Sophie by telling her that another passenger has recommended a nice hotel on the River Seine. Riding through Paris, Sophie is charmed by the city’s serenity and grace: its greenery and winding cobblestone streets and the dresses and “gliding” gait of its female pedestrians. As they arrive at the Hotel Bost, a hidden pair of eyes “thirty feet in the air” watches their every move (72). Squatting on the pavement in front of the hotel, Sophie takes out her cello and plucks a “thrumming tune” to make herself feel more at home.