I nodded.

“What do they want?”

“Ask them, if they choose to speak with you.

But don’t ask them for forgiveness as the price of your attention.”

She had prepared herself to be furious, I thought, and decided that fury would take energy better spent on her daughters.

I had no right to interpret that restraint as an opening.

Before she left, she placed one final paper before me: a list of dates and venues for the twins’ upcoming public research presentations.

“This isn’t an invitation to appear unannounced,” she said.