Of course, what my mind’s eye was trying to tell me was that the Vicar and Miss Marcy had managed to by-pass the suffering that comes to most people—he by his religion, she by her kindness to others. And it came to me that if one does that, one is liable to miss too much along with the suffering—perhaps, in a way, life itself. Is that why Miss Marcy seems so young for her age—why the Vicar, in spite of all his cleverness, has that look of an elderly baby?
