The hedges were a dark black-green, high and thick above the dusty road; there had been no rain for weeks.

Truly a stable world.

Mary, glaring at Fate, wondered how it could be so.
Miss Jones, who was happy and optimistic to-day, talked in a tenderly reminiscent tone of her youth.

This vein of reminiscence Mary, on her normal day, loved.

To-day she did not hear a word that Miss Jones said.
"I remember my mother saying so well to my dear brother: 'Do what you like, my boy.