Just sit still as you are, and let me just get my arms about you, and put my head on your shoulder, and hold me close like that for a moment, so that I can realise that I am not too late." She got up, and, leaning over him, held him so for a moment, pressing her cheek close to his, and kissing him on the eyes and on the mouth.
"Ah, that is nice," she said.

"It makes my loneliness fall away from me.
I am not quite alone any more.

And now, if you are not tired will you let me talk to you a little more, and learn a little more about you ?" She pulled her chair again nearer him, so that sitting there she could clasp his arm.
"I want your happiness, dear," she said, "but there is so little now that I can do to secure it.

I must put that into other hands.

You are twenty-five, Michael; you are old enough to get married.