CHAPTER XXI.
If a fool be associated with a wise man all his life, he will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the taste of soup .-- _Buddhist Dhammapada_.
"I can't think what takes you to Wilderleigh," said Lady Newhaven to Rachel.

"I am always bored to death when I go there.

Sybell is so self-centred." Perhaps one of the reasons why Lady Newhaven and Sybell Loftus did not "get on" was owing to a certain superficial resemblance between them.
Both exacted attention, and if they were in the same room together it seldom contained enough attention to supply the needs of both.

Both were conscious, like "Celia Chettam," that since the birth of their first child their opinions respecting literature, politics, and art had acquired additional weight and solidity, and that a wife and mother could pronounce with decision on important subjects where a spinster would do well to hold her peace.

Each was fond of saying, "As a married woman I think this or that"; yet each was conscious of dislike and irritation when she heard the other say it.