Last Spring, when the blossom was out, I went down to New College, and looked at the cherry tree that we used to see from Hugo’s window. I suppose it is just the same now, as it always was, but I do not feel the same about it now. There are other young men in Hugo’s college rooms, three generations of young men have been in those rooms since we came here, and others, of course, before that. It is twenty years now since Hugo was there.
And now it is my birthday, and I am forty; and Hugo, if he were alive, would be forty-two and a half. That seems impossible; I cannot think of Hugo as not young.
And there are the leaves coming down. There are always leaves and trees . . . and always coming down . . . naturally . . . every year . . . why do I notice that?
And this is all that has happened. It does not seem very much. It does not seem worth writing about. I was happy when I was a child, and I married the wrong person, and some one I loved dearly was killed in the war . . . that is all. And all those things must be true of thousands of people.
Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London
Note on the Text
This ebook is transcribed from a 1926 edition published by Chatto & Windus, available from Google Books.[1] Every attempt has been made to retain original spelling and punctuation, even when internally inconsistent. The only changes that have been made are to the following passages:
| ‘military people, you know, and well connected.”’
Added missing opening quote. |
| ‘Four days. three days . . . two days . . .’
Added missing elipses before “three.” |
| it is a sort of blurr
Changed to “blur.” |
| I could not, in the circumtances
Changed to “circumstances.” |
| not his proto-Hitite Script
Changed to “Hittite.” |
| Corrected several misspellings of “Yearsly” (from Yearsley), “Pincent” (from Pinsent), and “Howsteads” (from Howsteds). |
New original cover art included with this ebook is granted to the public domain. It is a composite of the title page text and clothbound cover.