Hetty

Hetty is a sympathetic confidante whom Peter seeks during a crisis of grief and suspicion. She offers him patient attention and practical advice, but he leaves her believing that his own interpretation of events—not her counsel—will protect him and Eva.

The Listener Peter Seeks

After a wave of distress brings memories of Lieve and his failing marriage to the surface, Peter rides away from home to find the one person he knows who is willing to listen. Hetty greets him at her doorway with a knowing smile, puts a hand on his arm, and recognizes how agitated he is. She leads him through the narrow hall to the garden, where a tabby cat is purring on a table beneath a parasol; after gently moving the cat, she offers Peter a drink. The quiet, ordinary welcome contrasts with the turmoil he has brought to her.

Advice About Grief and Eva

Peter tells Hetty that he feels Eva slipping away and suspects she has fallen in love with the man who lives opposite them. He does not disclose their swinging experience, and instead presses the question he came to ask: whether a house can bring bad luck. Hetty redirects him from that fearful explanation. She tells him that what they are going through could happen anywhere, that they are grieving and searching for meaning and a different way to live, and that saving their relationship will require them to work at it together. Her response treats their crisis as a shared human struggle rather than evidence that their home is cursed.

Peter Rejects Her Counsel

Hetty asks whether she has helped and invites Peter to send Eva to see her the following week; she also offers to take his call if he needs her. Peter thanks her but says he does not think they will return, because he now knows what to do. As he walks away, he transforms the sunlight into confirmation of a higher world and imagines himself among the few able to perceive higher planes of consciousness. This conviction turns Hetty’s practical appeal toward shared work into something Peter believes he can transcend through special insight. Her brief appearance thus marks both an available path toward help and Peter’s refusal to take it.