We escaped as often as we could, and rode and drove and made secret visits to the city and saw the plays at matinees.

There's nothing old about Mother.

I suppose that's why she married again.

But now that I'm left alone in this house of decay, where everybody and everything belongs to the past, I'm frightened of being so young, and catch looks that make me feel that I ought to be ashamed of myself.

It's so long since I quarreled with a girl or flirted with a boy that I can't remember it.