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An orphan."
Mrs. Fyne looked away weary and sombre, and Fyne said "Yes" impulsively,
and then qualified the affirmative by the quaint statement: "To a certain
extent."
I became conscious of a languid, exhausted embarrassment, bowed to Mrs.
Fyne, and went out of the cottage to be confronted outside its door by
the bespangled, cruel revelation of the Immensity of the Universe. The
night was not sufficiently advanced for the stars to have paled; and the
earth seemed to me more profoundly asleep--perhaps because I was alone
now. Not having Fyne with me to set the pace I let myself drift, rather
than walk, in the direction of the farmhouse. To drift is the only
reposeful sort of motion (ask any ship if it isn't) and therefore
consistent with thoughtfulness. And I pondered: How is one an orphan "to
a certain extent"?
No amount of solemnity could make such a statement other than bizarre.
What a strange condition to be in. Very likely one of the parents only
was dead? But no; it couldn't be, since Fyne had said just before that
"there was really no one" to communicate with.


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