Topsy Diver
The Divers' daughter — nine, very fair, and so like Nicole that her father used to worry about it.
To be let get on with being nine — familiar routines, her brother's company, and no part in either parent's condition.
The book
At a glance
- Dick and Nicole's daughter; Lanier's younger sister
- Nine
- Very fair, and strongly resembling Nicole
- Before a long relapse of Nicole's, which the novel connects to the birth
- The Villa Diana, the fair, the Minghetti household, and Dick's last day on the Riviera
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeTopsy is nine, very fair, and exquisitely made like Nicole, and the book says that in the past Dick had worried about that. Lately she has become as robust as any American child, and he is satisfied with them both. She is two years younger than Lanier and, in the narration's word, easier — a description that says as much about the adults doing the comparing as it does about her.
She appears mostly in fragments of ordinary family life: singing 'Au clair de la lune' beside her brother on the terrace, walking through a fair between the booths, settling a point with her father about whether the Punch at the guignol is the same Punch they saw last year at Cannes. Dick is deliberate about not cultivating her adoration. Asked what he cares whether Topsy adores him, his answer is that he is not bringing her up to be his wife.
How the book draws them
- Very fairHer colouring and delicacy are Nicole's, which is the first thing the narration says about her and the reason for Dick's old anxiety.
- Robust nowThe relief is recorded as a clinical observation. She has become as sturdy as any American child, and her father notes it the way he would note a good chart.
- The easier oneEasier than Lanier because she demands less explanation and starts fewer confrontations. The book offers this as a fact about the household rather than a compliment to her.
- The same PunchHer contribution to the fair is a serious question about whether this year's Punch is last year's Punch at Cannes, and it gets settled before the family walks on.
- Not brought up to adoreDick refuses to turn her affection into another dependency, and says so in one of his coldest and most self-aware lines: he is not bringing her up to be his wife.
- Asked about actingRosemary, filling an awkward silence, tells her she would make a fine actress. Nicole answers instead, slowly and distinctly and in her grandfather's voice, that it is absolutely out.
Like her brother she spends Dick's last Riviera day with him, and is told the same thing:
The novel never shows her grieving or adjusting. That silence is part of what makes the ending land — the marriage is dissolved, the money rearranges everyone, and the two people with the least say in it are last seen holding hands on a hillside being sent to fetch help.