Question

why did the narrator not believe that is his grandmother was once young and pretty 'The Portrait of a Lady'​

Answer 1

The narrator refers to his grandmother as being "old and wrinkled" for the twenty years that he's known her. Many people have told him that his grandmother was once young and pretty, married even, but the narrator finds that hard to believe. Looking at his grandfather's portrait, the narrator also can't believe that he was ever married to his grandmother or had children; with his long, white beard and huge turban, he looks like a grandfather, not a father