On The Contrary, I Was There, As We Have Seen, To
Knock Five Years Off My Age.
And it was very pleasant, as I
have said, so long as I confined my attention to Bath, the
stone-built town of old memories and associations - so long as
I was satisfied to loiter in the streets and wide green places
and in the Pump Room and the abbey.
The bitter came in only
when, going from places to faces, I began to seek out the
friends and acquaintances of former days. The familiar faces
seemed not wholly familiar now. A change had been wrought; in
some cases a great change, as in that of some weedy girl who
had blossomed into fair womanhood. One could not grieve at
that; but in the middle-aged and those who were verging on or
past that period, it was impossible not to feel saddened at
the difference. "I see no change in you," is a lie ready to
the lips which would speak some pleasing thing, but it does
not quite convince. Men are naturally brutal, and use no
compliments to one another; on the contrary, they do not
hesitate to make a joke of wrinkles and grey hairs - their own
and yours. "But, oh, the difference" when the familiar face,
no longer familiar as of old, is a woman's! This is no light
thing to her, and her eyes, being preternaturally keen in such
matters, see not only the change in you, but what is
infinitely sadder, the changed reflection of herself.
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