Kew Gardens Youth Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)

Quote #4

After looking at it for a moment in some confusion the old man bent his ear to it and seemed to answer a voice speaking from it, for he began talking about the forests of Uruguay which he had visited hundreds of years ago in company with the most beautiful young woman in Europe. (14)

You're probably getting sick of this quote too. The old man reminisces about his youth "hundreds of years ago." You get the idea… Like the married man, he's obsessed with his prime years—which he also associates with a beautiful young woman. 

Quote #5

They were both in the prime of youth, or even that season which precedes the prime of youth, the season before the smooth pink folds of the flower have burst their gummy case, when the wings of the butterfly, though fully grown, are motionless in the sun. (19)

Unlike the story's older people who are busy reminiscing about their youth, the young couple is in the prime of their youth right now. Their preoccupations are more about navigating their future. In this regard, they are foils (of sorts) to the older characters that obsess mostly about the past. Why do you think Woolf includes these young characters side-by-side with the older ones? What does this diversity of representation add to the story?