So Late in the Day: Stories of Men and Women

by Claire Keegan

so much of life carrying smoothly on, despite the tangle of human upsets and the knowledge of how everything must end.

‘Do you think I’m made of money?’ he’d said – and immediately felt the long shadow of his father’s language crossing over his life, on what should have been a good day, if not one of his happiest.

‘I just didn’t think it would be like this, is all,’ he said. ‘I just thought about your being here and having dinner, waking up with you. Maybe it’s just too much reality.’

That was the problem with women falling out of love; the veil of romance fell away from their eyes, and they looked in and could read you.