But now I knew I should have been with her at the precise moment when she lost her independence, when they forced her door open, even if it was only wide enough to let a doctor in, and took her protesting from her home — that idea had never entered my head. The prize, I reflected bitterly, had already begun to work its influence. I had rushed off in a TV car towards its radiance, away from illness, old age, loneliness and incapacity. Once
