It was strange

It was strange to look at them, these two old people who had not seen one another for half a century, and to think that all that long time ago he had loved her and she had loved another. I wondered if they remembered what they had felt then and what they had said to one another. I wondered if it seemed to him strange now that for that old woman he had left the home of his fathers, his lawful inheritance, and lived an exile's life.
'Have you ever been married, Captain Meadows?' I asked.
'Not me' he said, in his quavering voice, with a grin. 'I know too much about women for that'
'That's what you say', retorted Mrs Meadows. 'If the truth was known I shouldn't be surprised to hear as how you'd had half a dozen black wives in your day.'
'They're not black in China, Emily, you ought to know better than that, they're yellow'.
'Prehap's that's why you've got so yellow yourself. When I saw you, I said to myself, why, he's got Joundice.'
'I said I'd never marry anyone but you, Emily, and i never have.'
'Well you might have regretted it if you had,' she answered.
I talked a little with the old man about China.
'There's not a port in China that I don't know better than you know you coat pocket. Where a ship can go I've been. I could keep you sitting here all day long for six months and not tell you half the things I've seen in my day".
'Well, one thing you've not done, George, as far as I can see, is to make a fortune'.
'I'm not one to save money. Make it and spend it; that's my motto. But one thing I can say for myself : if I had the chance of going through my life again I'd take it. And there's not many who can say that'.
He was a toothless, crippled, penniless old man, but he had made a succes of life, for he had enjoyed it.

in the home, Somerset Maugahm