The House in Paris (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

Two children, strangers, wait in a house in Paris: Leopold for his mother, whom he has never seen; Henrietta for a train. Upstairs an old woman lies dying and her sad unfulfilled daughter flutters hopelessly round her...
Slowly exposing the apprehensions of the children and the reasons for their presence in the house, Elizabeth Bowen releases all her psychological insight, her charmed prose and unerring feel for atmosphere into a masterpiece of delicacy and restraint.