I had been depressed for so long that it had become a permanent state of mind. Expectations might lift the edge of the cloud every time one took a new job, but life never turned out to be as good as the hopes.
He looked at me with the small still smile behind the eyes which is the hallmark of those who know what life is really about. His soul was old. He was twenty-six.
He took himself off to Turkey, stopping on one foot at the doorway for some parting advice. 'You'll have to practise short landings before you go to Bath; and avoid Yarmouth in a heatwave. It's all yours now, mate, and the best of British luck.'