So that, though they could not help knowing many people, they had no intimates; they encouraged no one to visit them, and visited other houses as little as might be.
In Marian Yule they divined a sympathetic nature.

She was unlike any girl with whom they had hitherto associated, and it was the impulse of both to receive her with unusual friendliness.

The habit of reticence could not be at once overcome, and Marian's own timidity was an obstacle in the way of free intercourse, but Jasper's conversation at tea helped to smooth the course of things.
'I wish you lived anywhere near us,' Dora said to their visitor, as the three girls walked in the garden afterwards, and Maud echoed the wish.
'It would be very nice,' was Marian's reply.

'I have no friends of my own age in London.' 'None ?' 'Not one!' She was about to add something, but in the end kept silence.
'You seem to get along with Miss Yule pretty well, after all,' said Jasper, when the family were alone again.
'Did you anticipate anything else ?' Maud asked.
'It seemed doubtful, up at Yule's house.

Well, get her to come here again before I go.