“But are you?” he said, voicing for the first time his inner fear.
And it was then that the horror of the situation dawned upon her. In youth, when youth comes rightly, there is old age in which to lose it complacently, but when it comes in old age there is no time to watch it go.
She sat up and stared at him.
“Why, yes,” she said in a flat and firm voice, “that’s so. I am no longer of few years.”
She could not say “no longer young,” because she was young.
“It will make no difference.”
“Ah,” she said, “it will make no difference to you, but it will make a difference to us.”
She lay back and sighed, and presently she asked him to leave her a little while.
When he had gone she summoned the doctor.
She said: “My friend—am I dying—so soon?”