Byatt calls the story plain, and brief, and clear and terrible though the narrator's tone is not simple. Byatt goes on to say that Mann is recording, not judging but her telling is spiky with morals and the inadequacy of morals.
Byatt describes the story as uncomplicated and direct, yet the narrator's tone is intricate and layered. Byatt asserts that Mann's account is more observational than judgmental, but her storytelling is marked by subtle moral themes and a critique of the concept of morality itself.