Elizabeth - also known as Libby ... I hadn't known her, but Frank wanted to tell me about her. It was one of those dark evenings when people tend to reminisce, look back over their long lives. He wanted to talk. So I listened. "I don’t think I was actually in love with Libby," he said " I knew she had a bit of a crush on me and it did strike me that she would be very happy to marry me - well I was certainly not averse to that - she was such a bright, sparkling redhead, so vivacious and charming." Frank paused, reached for his G&T, half emptied it, then continued; he didn't see me, nor his glass; his mind was far away, deep in the past. "But as the years passed, separated by our career choices, I found myself abruptly alone, realising that she had disappeared, was lost to me. And the world was instantly colder." Frank emptied his glass, stared into his past again. "She was the cousin of my best friend." he added. Shook his head, smiled, but not with his eyes. "And now we are all grown older; and she is gone; and he is gone." "The world is such a cold and unfriendly place when those you loved are no longer there."