Quote #15
Sometimes the little boy who calls me father brings me an invitation from his mother: 'I shall be so pleased if you will come and see me,' and I always reply in some such words as these: 'Dear madam, I decline.' And if David asks why I decline, I explain that it is because I have no desire to meet the woman. 'Come this time, father,' he urged lately, 'for it is her birthday, and she is twenty-six,' which is so great an age to David, that I think he fears she cannot last much longer.