Mary Olivier: A Life · Book III · Chapter IV · Chapter 14 4

“Mark!”

“Minky!”

He had said good night and gone to his room and come back again to hold her still tighter in his arms.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Only⁠—good night.”

Tomorrow no lingering and no words. Mark’s feet quick in the passage. A door shut to, a short, crushing embrace before he turned from her to her mother.

Her mother and she alone together in the emptied room, turning from each other, without a word.