A phrase from a forbidden book reverberated in her mind as Clara jogged on the road which circled the four bedroom houses that formed a wall around Septemberclaver. "...the walls being overspread with a kind of stucco, in which fragments of broken glass were plentifully intermixed so that, when the sunshine fell aslant-wise over the front of the edifice, it glittered and sparkled as if diamonds had been flung against it..."

According to legend, long ago, before the back windows were stuccoed, the Pacific Ocean was visible from round windows in the upstairs bedrooms of all the houses in Septemberclaver.