One need hardly dwell on the catastrophic possibility of uttering a bantering remark only to discover it wholly inappropriate

The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.

The world is crawling with authors touring now. They're like performance artists.

Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways.

Don’t you wonder sometimes, what might have happened if you tried?

Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm.

I do not think I responded immediately, for it took me a moment or two to fully digest these words of Miss Kenton. Moreover, as you might appreciate, their implications were such as to provoke a certain degree of sorrow within me. Indeed- why should I not admit it? - at that moment, my heart was breaking.