Jane and Prudence [antikvár]

Chapter One Jane and Prudence were walking in the college garden before dinner. Their conversation came in excited little bursts, for Oxford is very lovely in midsummer, and the glimpses of grey towers through the trees and the river at their side moved them to reminiscences of earlier days. 'Ah, those delphiniums,' sighed Jane. 'I always used to think Nicholas's eyes were just that colour. But I suppose a middle-aged man - and he is that now, poor darling - can't have delphinium-blue eyes.' Those white roses always remind me of Laurence,' said Prudence, continuing on her own line. 'Once I remember him coming to call for me and picking me a s white rose - and Miss Birkinshaw saw him from her window! It was like Beauty and the Beast,' she added. 'Not that Laurence was ugly. I always thought him V rather attractive.' 'But you were certainly Beauty, Prue,' said Jane warmly. 'Oh, those days of wine and roses! They are not long.' 'And to think that we didn't really appreciate wine,' said Prudence. 'How innocent we were then and how happy!' They walked on without speaking, their silence paying a brief tribute to their lost youth.