It would have been all right if on the day of the viewing she hadn't overheard the couple talk about how valuable the mirror was. Geri would never have even considered taking it otherwise. It was enormous for a start, very old-fashioned and rather over fancy. They were each to choose one piece of furniture from their Aunt Nora's possessions before the auction took place.
Geri's sister had taken the piano, her brother had taken the rocking chair, and she had been about to select a little octagonal sewing table when she heard that the mirror was worth a lot of money. Geri loved a bargain; the others used to tease her about it, but she said that she got such genuine pleasure from knowing she had bought something valuable, they surely couldn't begrudge it to her. So she told nobody about the overheard remark and said that the mirror was what she would choose. "We don't want a huge mirror," her husband Sean said.
"Why don't you take the bath with the funny legs?" asked her son Shay, who was 18 and into weird ideas.
"It would fall on someone and kill them," said her 16-year-old daughter Marian, who would disagree with anything on Earth that her mother suggested.
But it was Geri's aunt who had gone to the retirement home, and Geri's choice when it came down to it, so the huge mirror was taken down from the hall and delivered to their house.
Aunt Nora had been surprised. "You don't have a hall big enough for it dear," she had said.
This was, of course, true, but Geri hadn't wanted it for a hall, she wanted it as a big showpiece in her dining-room. She knew just the place, and there would be candlesticks beside it. It would knock everyone's eyes out, and gradually she would let slip how valuable the ormolu mirror was and how rare a piece, how lucky she was to get it.
She wouldn't need to say that to their neighbours Frances and James - they would know at a glance. And what a wonderful glance that would be. Even though Geri didn't like to admit it to herself, she was very anxious indeed to impress this couple. They seemed to have effortless style and confidence.
Geri would enjoy their reaction when they saw the mirror at the dinner party.
"Where are you going to put the mirror, dear?" Aunt Nora wanted to know.
Sometimes her aunt irritated Geri: she seemed to know everything and be right about all subjects.
"In the dining-room," she said, and waited for the objection. She hadn't expected it to be so forthright.
"You can't be serious?" said the old woman, who had settled herself into the nursing home with a small selection of perfectly chosen pieces around her. Aunt Nora did have good taste, that couldn't be denied, but she was also very, very dogmatic.
"That's where I'd like it, Aunt," Geri said, with more confidence than she felt.
She wondered why she feel so defensive, so apologetic. Geri often asked herself this. She was a perfectly acceptable looking woman of 38, she worked in an office five mornings a week, she went to the gym two afternoons a week. She was married to Sean, a civil servant, a man who loved her in as much as we ever know if anyone loves us. She had a handsome son, Shay, who would eventually get his act together and realise he had to work for a living, she had a discontented daughter Marian - but all girls of that age hated their mothers. She had a nice house, and she worked hard to keep it looking well.
Geri would go miles to get an inexpensive rug that people would think was much more classy than it actually was. But when you thought about it, was this a crime? Was this something that should make her feel guilty and humble? And in front of an elderly aunt?
"Why is that a bad idea, Aunt Nora?" she asked, keeping her temper.
"My dear girl, nobody has a mirror in a dining-room, you must know that."
Geri hadn't known it and doubted if it was true. She listened patiently while her aunt, speaking from the point of view of another generation, told her it was unwise to let people see their own reflections. They spent ages titivating and making faces at themselves in a mirror, and totally lost interest in the art of conversation, which was what a dinner party should be all about.
"Everyone knows that, Geri," Aunt Nora said disapprovingly.
Geri decided to be very understanding - this was an elderly woman who had just been forced to leave her own home. Allow her to have the last word. Pretend to agree.
"I'm sure you're right, Aunt Nora. I'll have to think of somewhere else to put it," she lied soothingly.
Aunt Nora snorted. She had been around a long time and she knew Geri hadn't a notion of changing her plans. By chance that evening on a television programme about interior decorating, someone made the remark that you'd never put a mirror in the dining-room. It unsettled Geri for a moment but she rationalised it. It was one of these old superstitions, like not walking under ladders, some fuddy duddy thing about having to have antimacassars on your sofa.
The mirror arrived in Geri and Sean's house, and was hung over the mantelpiece. "It sort of dwarfs the room a bit, doesn't it?" Sean said tentatively.
"You have no idea how valuable this is," Geri implored.
"Oh well, all right then." Sean was all for an easy life.
"I'd have loved the bath. It was like something from a horror film," said Shay wistfully.
"It'll fall down in the middle of their dinner party, mark my words," said Marian confidently.
But Geri took no notice. She planned the party relentlessly. Sean had met some fellow who was in the running to be an ambassador, and Geri insisted that he and his wife would be invited. She planned for happy hours how she would drop this piece of information in front of Frances and James.
She had also invited an old and rather tedious woman who was leasing her castle to Americans and a man who was involved with the development of film. It would be a guest list that would impress anybody: all that and the new mirror, Frances and James would be stunned. The children were being well paid to serve the meal, money to be handed over discreetly when the coffee was on the table and Shay and Marian had said a courteous goodnight to the company.
To Geri's great disappointment, nobody mentioned the mirror when they filed into the dining-room. She just couldn't believe it. Frances and James had been in this house before, they must have noticed it. Perhaps they didn't comment on it out of sheer jealousy. The young wannabe diplomats must surely have been in smart places with heirlooms and antiques before, maybe they just expected such elegance.