Now, chalk in hand, she stood back from life a silent hour before reaching for the eraser. “Let me see now,” said Great-grandma. “Let me see …” With no fuss or further ado, she traveled the house in an ever-circling inventory, reached the stairs at last, and, making no special announcement, she took herself up three flights to her room where, silently, she laid herself out like a fossil imprint under the snowing cool sheets of her bed and began to die.
