Five years seems a long time in looking forward . But they pass quickly . One day I remembered that it was Marcella 's twenty-first birthday . Only one other person thought of it . Even Miss Sara did not . Miss Sara remembered Marcella only as a child that had been loved and lost . Nobody else in Bridgeport thought about her at all . The doctor came in that evening . He had a rose in his buttonhole and he walked with a step as light as a boy 's . `` She is free to-day , '' he said . `` We shall soon have her again , Miss Tranquil . '' `` Do you think she will be the same ? '' I said . I do n't know what made me say it . I hate to be one of those people who throw cold water on other peoples ' hopes . But it slipped out before I thought . I suppose the doubt had been vaguely troubling me always , under all my faith in Marcella , and now made itself felt in spite of me . But the doctor only laughed . `` How could she be changed ? '' he said .
`` Some women might be -- most women would be -- but not XXXXX .
Bridgeport Marcella Nobody Sara buttonhole day doctor evening twenty-first years