.

.

And my mother?
I would wish most especially for her, but I know that she has gone out, gone out into the long streets which in my imagination have no end.

I had myself gone to the door with her and had asked her: "When returnest thou ?" And she had promised me that she would return speedily.

Later they told me that when I was a child I would never permit any members of the family to leave the house to go walking or visiting without first obtaining their assurance of a speedy homecoming.