I was cycling one way, New Friend\u2019s neighbour the other. His neighbour\u2019s wife more exactly who he is on speaking terms with. A funny girl, he called her, grandmother age, peculiar features, peculiar way of speaking, they talk across the garden fence, and the other day he took her a cauliflower his daughter-in-law had bought without having use for it. New Friend is not on speaking terms with her husband, a strange character apparently. He told me a few stories to illustrate what he meant.<\/p>\n
Much to my surprize, his neighbour\u2019s wife whom I knew by sight without ever having talked to her, got off her bicycle when she saw me, forcing me to do the same. She wanted to say something. \u201cAre you the lady who pays visits to Mr New Friend?\u201d she asked me. A rhetorical question! I had a mild shock. Goodness me, how did she know? He had been right about his neighbours being nosy. I had to live up to my reputation, now, and together we poured what sympathy we were capable of over the poor widower. What a shock! How suddenly! It doesn\u2019t bear thinking of! (She moved her hand to her chest dramatically.) How awful! How sad! How worrying! The poor man! Do you think he is coping? She worried very much about him, she said, you can\u2019t help it. Mind you, she informed me, his family are with him at the moment. She must have noticed I hadn\u2019t been since the arrival of his family!! \u201cOh? Are they?\u201d I said, pleased about the information, \u201cvery good of them, isn\u2019t it.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see people care,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m always there, of course; he knows he can come any time or ring me when he isn\u2019t well. But it is good to know that other people will look after him.\u201d She couldn\u2019t get any more out of me, and we parted. \u201cSee you,\u201d she said. Maybe she\u2019s a tiny little bit\u2026sweet on him?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was cycling one way, New Friend\u2019s neighbour the other. His neighbour\u2019s wife more exactly who he is on speaking terms with. A funny girl, he called her, grandmother age, peculiar features, peculiar way of speaking, they talk across the garden fence, and the other day he took her a cauliflower his daughter-in-law had bought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-aloud"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t