Wednesdays with Words (The Young Clementina)

I just finished reading The Young Clementina by D. E. Stevenson, the author of Miss Buncle's Book. I found this a delightful read and if I hadn't had to return the book to the library I think I would have read it again.

In this passage, Charlotte Dean is telling her story in writing to an imaginary friend.  Kitty is her younger sister.

Three things happened to change me from a child. Three things, one after another. The birthday dance, Mother's death, and, a few weeks after that, the war. After the long peaceful years of childhood the three things happened so quickly that there was no time to think. I was eighteen when the war came--it was a bad age to be. I was too old to take it--as Kitty took it--with the excitement of a child over a new experience. Too young to remember another war, to have achieved philosophy and to realize that it would pass. To eighteen things do not pass quickly--neither grief nor pleasures--a trouble seems to be for all time. Eighteen cannot see through present darkness to future light. p. 33

See more Wednesdays with Words over at ladydusk.