“My daughter and I said how sad you looked—your whole life, we could see, is centred in that child.”
“Not entirely,” said Marcus, thinking of his collections.
“No? But still for a man alone it is a great responsibility.”
“I’ve got some one with me, thank you, to help—a housemaid, her father’s a coast-guardsman.”
“Of course, yes.”
“It’s the buttons and things, on the beach.”
“Of course, yes. Is she like her mother?”
“Like her mother? Yes, I suppose she is—wider between the eyes, perhaps—a little.”
“Ah, the tragedies of life!” A pause, then she added: “Was she taken early?”
“Who?”