In the "freshness" of his age and kind, he is skeptical as to her good looks and other fascinations, and takes wicked satisfaction in giving her to understand that he, at least, "is not fooled by her tricks and manners." If her "nagging" is a thorn under his jacket, his cool disdain is a grain of sand inside of her slipper.
What looks like natural antipathy between big sisters and little brothers is but one of several reasons why home is so often less like home to the boys than to the rest of the family.
I have in my mind's eye a distinct picture of the quarters allotted to a promising college-lad in the mansion of a wealthy father, and which I saw by accident.

Each of the three accomplished sisters had her own bed-chamber, fitted up according to her taste.

A spacious sitting-room on the second floor, with windows on the sunny front and at the side, was common to the trio.

There were flowers, workstands, desks, easels, bookshelves, lounging and sewing chairs, pictures selected by each; _portieres_ in the doorways and costly rugs upon the polished floor.
Up two flights of stairs, _on the same floor with the servants_, the brother was domiciled in a low-browed, sunless back-room, overlooking kitchen-yards and roofs.

A dingy ingrain carpet was worn thin in numerous places; no two pieces of furniture were even remotely related to one another in style or age.