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Sixteen Years Old - Meg Bailey 1
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Meg Bailey 20

One evening Lucy startled me by saying, “You mustn’t be unkind to poor dear Henry.” I didn’t know what she meant. Seeing me puzzled, she went on to say that he was falling in love with me and that if I didn’t want him I must do something about it.

“But Lucy,” I said, “I haven’t done anything to make him fall in love with me – if he is falling – so what could I do to make him not? I like him, so I don’t see why I should suddenly turn horrid to him.”

“You don’t have to turn horrid to him. … Meg, how old are you?”

“Nearly twenty-one.”

“Haven’t you ever had an affair with anyone?”

“Of course not,” I said, and then blushed hard at having said it. I knew that there was no “of course” about it at my age; that was only the way I had lived which made it seem inevitable to me. Lucy’s look of surprise was not unkind, but it embarrassed me so much that I had to find an excuse to go up to my room.

Diana Athill  ·  Don't Look at Me Like That

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