"Never, never at all?"
"Nevermore!"
"Where does the good God live?"
"He lives in heaven."
I remained in thought for a moment; unreasoning baby though I was, I quite understood that something dreadful had happened in my life. Then I took advantage of the first moment when attention was diverted from me to escape from my uncle's house and run straight home to my mother.
All the doors were open, and everybody looked scared; one could tell that death was in the house.
I got in without being noticed at all, and reached a little room where arms were kept; I took up one of my father's single-barrelled guns, which he had often promised to give me when I should be grown up.
Then, armed with this gun, I climbed the stairs.
I met my mother on the first landing; she was coming out of the death-chamber, weeping bitterly.