Could it be, even for elderly people, that this was life? – startling, unexpected, unknown?
Beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty – it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life – froze it.
A whole lifetime was too short to bring out, now that one had acquired the power, the full flavour; to extract every ounce of pleasure, every shade of meaning; which both were so much more solid than they used to be, so much less personal.
