‘I am happy too, Grandmother.’
I waited; I wanted to say more, but I did not know what to say. I felt then that she was old, and perhaps lonely. It had not occurred to me before that my marriage had left her all alone. I wondered what it would be like to be old.
I thought:
‘We shall all be old some day, Guy and Hugo, and George, and Mollie and Walter, and I; how strange that is; quite certainly some day we shall be old.’
But it was not real to me even then.
‘Can I do anything for you, Grandmother?’ I asked. ‘Can I get you another book?’
‘No, dear, no; I shall go to bed soon. Are the other young people still there?’
I said, yes, they were going on with their game.
‘Say “good night” to them for me,’ she said; ‘they need not come up’; and she kissed me ‘Good night.’
I went downstairs slowly.