“Over thirty?” said Hadrian.
“Well, not so much. She’s thirty-two.”
Hadrian considered a while.
“She doesn’t look it,” he said.
Again the sick father looked at him.
“Do you think she’d like to leave here?” said Hadrian.
“Nay, I don’t know,” replied the father, restive.
Hadrian sat still, having his own thoughts. Then in a small, quiet voice, as if he were speaking from inside himself, he said:
“I’d marry her if you wanted me to.”
The sick man raised his eyes suddenly, and stared. He stared for a long time. The youth looked inscrutably out of the window.