“Rather a peculiar child, was she not? I wonder how I treated her. Was I fond of children in those days? Was there anything gracious or kindly about me⁠—great, reckless, schoolboy as I was? But you don’t recollect me, of course?”

“You have seen your own picture at La Terrasse . It is like you personally. In manner, you were almost the same yesterday as today.”

“But, Lucy, how is that? Such an oracle really whets my curiosity. What am I today? What was I the yesterday of ten years back?”

“Gracious to whatever pleased you⁠—unkindly or cruel to nothing.”

“There you are wrong; I think I was almost a brute to you , for instance.”

“A brute! No, Graham: I should never have patiently endured brutality.”