I was already an elderly man, you know, when Sep was born.

Too old, perhaps.

Who knows?
Heaven's way is not always marked very clearly." He nodded vaguely and went away a few paces.

Then he remembered something and came back.
"I don't know if I ought to speak of such a thing.

But I quite hoped, at one time, that Miriam might one day recognise his goodness of heart." "What ?" interrupted Turner.