The passage of it through the great trees in the garden began to sound like the fall of waves on a distant beach.

It drove the rain--a heavy downpour by this time--rattling against the windows.
"Almost a storm, isn't it ?" Emily said Francine's last question had not been answered yet.

She took the earliest opportunity of repeating it: "Never mind the weather," she said.

"Tell me about your father and mother.

Are they both alive ?" Emily's reply only related to one of her parents.
"My mother died before I was old enough to feel my loss." "And your father ?" Emily referred to another relative--her father's sister.