One hundred and three

Helen, Mrs Croft's elderly daughter, visits every Sunday, bringing cans of soup. She tells the narrator that her mother likes him, and calls him a gentleman.

Mrs Croft, very old-fashioned, says it is improper for Helen and the narrator to talk alone without a chaperone, and that Helen's dress is too short. Helen, in her sixties, just laughs.

Helen explains that after her father died, her mother taught piano for forty years to raise her children. She stopped eating solid food after she turned a hundred.

The narrator is shocked: Mrs Croft is 103 years old, and still lives alone. He thinks of his own widowed mother, who lost her mind, and whom he could not help.

From then on, he watches over Mrs Croft quietly each evening, making sure she is all right.

Words for parts of a house appear in the story: parlour, foyer, lounge, porch, lobby, attic and portico.