‘There are ups and downs. . . . There are always ups and downs . . . one must take the bad with the good. It will all be better now that the War is over.’

And then she said:

‘Poor Delia! I am truly sorry for her. She idolized her Hugo . . . she never saw his faults . . . and now, I don’t believe that she cares much for Guy’s wife.’

I said:

‘She never says so. I am sure she tries to like her.’

Grandmother looked up sharply; she smiled, more as she used to smile:

She said:

‘I have seen her, you know. She would not be easy to like! But there it is, my dear, . . . you must take the bad with the good! . . . Guy is alive and married . . . that is much better than being dead.’

And then she talked again about my father when he was little.

And I thought: