We came to the corner of the doll-maker's street.
For several blocks we had met no one, seen no one. It was as though we were passing through a city of
the dead. Equally deserted was the street of the doll-maker.
Ricori said to Tony:
"Draw up opposite the doll-shop. We'll get out. Then go down to the corner. Wait for us there."
My heart was beating uncomfortably. There was a quality of blackness in the night that seemed to
swallow up the glow from the street lamps. There was no light in the doll-maker's shop, and in the
old-fashioned doorway, set level with the street, the shadows clustered. The wind whined, and I could
hear the beating of waves on the Battery wall. I wondered whether I would be able to go through that
doorway, or whether the inhibition the doll-maker had put upon me still held me.