I lived in Port Stewart, one of the small villages on the coast. I rented a small room at the top of an old two-storey Victorian house. From its window I could look out on the grey, ever-restless ocean,【小题1】

An old retired couple lived in two rooms on the ground floor. Mr. Paul was in his eighties and I remember him going for his nightly walk accompanied by his walking stick. 【小题2】 I heard him occasionally in his own-room. His wife would sit quietly in the kitchen beside the fire constantly knitting(织毛活)and offering me cups of tea as 1 came in from the pub or back from studying.

【小题3】I was not surprised, aware even then that age can be cruel. But what moved me most was his rapid worsening, the fact that I never again saw him walking bent double against the wind.

【小题4】The fact that I was only aware of this old man's illness through his rasping( 刺耳的) cough and his wife's nursing him gave the house an air of heavy sadness.

One evening, I came in from the cold and went straight to the kitchen to heat myself at the fire. Mrs.Paul sat alone. There was a silence I couldn't under-stand. 【小题5】 “Would you like a cup of tea?” I asked. She looked up slowly and l remember her old but still quite beautiful face as she said calmly and without emotion: “My husband is dead.”

I parked outside the grocery store that weekend, still tired after another stressful week of work. I’m an accountant, and it was the middle of busy season, which meant tight deadlines and crazy hours. A long weekend was coming up, and a friend suggested that I relax at a nearby woman recover center. I moved through the passageway with my shopping cart, hurrying to beat out a few others who were heading for the already long checkout line. It took me more than an hour to finish the shopping.

When I got back to my car, groceries in hand, I found a note on my car. In beautiful handwriting and blue ink, the writer explained that her car had scraped(刮擦) my Honda Civic when she pulled into the space next to mine. “I’m sorry!” she wrote, and added her insurance policy(保险单) number and cell phone number. At the bottom, she signed her name, Elyse.

What an honest person！I was quite surprised. Few people act like that nowadays. Most people would have just driven away. A few weeks later I got the estimate for the repair: $1,500! There’s no way she’ll pay this much, I thought. I picked up that note with the beautiful blue script and dialed the number, ready for an argument.

“Hello?” Elyse answered cheerily. “Hi, you left a note on my car?” I began. But even when she heard how much the bill was going to be, Elyse still sounded just like she had in her note, so friendly—and calm. How was it possible for her to be like that? I wondered. Believe it or not, I got the money for the repair.

When the busy period at work finally passed, I decided to go to the recover center that my friend had suggested. I had my doubts if it would help, but it couldn’t hurt, right?

Checking in at the front desk, I looked through the guest book, looking for a blank spot to write my name. Finally, I reached the last page. There, at the top, in the same perfect handwriting that she had used in her note to me, was Elyse’s name.