Tiredness washed over her. She had no more energy to reflect on Mr. Hayward. For as long as she could remember, it had seemed as if she was a player in a game whose rules she did not understand, in which all the dice were weighted against her. She had done her best to learn what she was supposed to do, but somehow, she always stumbled. As she looked into the distant hills, she realised how she longed to be free of it all, to leave behind the posturing and falsity, the niceties and stratagems.
