Whenwill I see him, Henry? She flopped over sideways onto the floor,her dark ringlets spreading across the black-and-white linoleum.Miss,sit up, Nurse called out. Ladies dont sprawl on the floor,Miss.Henry,who felt much the same as Cora did about Martins absence, foundhimself in the uncomfortable role of patient adult. Hell beback later this afternoon for his dinner. If he gets back earlyenough, maybe we can come upstairs to say hello.Corasat up and flicked impatiently at her mussed hair. Hell getback early enough, I know he will! Cora was very excited, possiblyoverly excited, and now Henry knew hed have to make sure Martincame upstairs or both Cora and Nurse would be terribly disappointedin him.Welltry, Henry told her. Ill do my best. There, hedcommitted himself. He would be a good brother.Nursecame to crouch down beside Cora and smoothed her hair, rearrangingthe curls. Miss, why dont you show your brother your dollhouse?I dont think hes seen it before.Henrymuch preferred this option to more hum-singing or pretending to be agirl doll. Yes, show me, Cora. Id like to see it.Thehouse had ten rooms on three floors plus an attic. The tiny bisqueinhabitants leaned stiffly against upholstered chairs in the familyparlor, and Henry noted that the young daughter of the family wasincluded in the gathering. The dollhouse family were superficiallylike the Blackwells, a father with sandy hair and a mother withblack, the children resembling the mother, but the son and daughterappeared to be roughly the same age and there was a third child, aninfant, that Cora dismissed as unimportant and kept permanently inthe nursery. The dancing bear from the circus, Honey, was a hulkingpresence in the miniature kitchen.Inaddition to the little bisque family, there were slave dolls dressedin plain black or grey. Henry found it unnerving that the slaves hadsmooth faces with rudimentary, unpainted features. Why do theylook like this? Henry asked Nurse, holding up the dollhouse nurse,faceless in her dark-grey dress.Likewhat, Sir?Theblank faces. Its creepy, dont you think?Itshow theyre sold, Sir, Nurse said, unconcerned. Theyremeant to be slaves, after all.Idont think of you all as faceless! Henry insisted. I dontthink anyone does!Well,Little Miss doesnt like them, either, Nurse said. Youllnotice, Sir, that none of her big dolls are like that. All of BabyAnns slaves have faces, which you might consider a point in BabyAnns favor.Henryput an arm around his sister and gave her a squeeze, expressing asort of loving solidarity, and she leaned against him happily whilestruggling to fit a miniature pillow into its pillowcase. It botheredHenry that children would be encouraged to think of slaves asinterchangeable or unimportant, as having no individuality. Henrymight not know much about all of the Blackwell slaves, but he didacknowledge they were people with hopes and desires, likes anddislikes. He had a terrible image of Martins beautiful facereplaced with a blank oval, white and inscrutable.Ilove our slaves, Cora said in a loud whisper. Dont you loveour slaves, Henry?Ido, he whispered back, though really he only loved some of them.He thought guiltily of the downstairs maids, whom he rarely saw, andwhose names and faces he couldnt keep straightbut he knew theyhad faces, at