It was not quite sisterly, but it was very nearly so.

It seemed to say: 'We understand each other as far as it is right and fitting that we should; we even sympathise with the difficulties we have each of us experienced in marrying the other's sister or brother, as the case may be.

We know the worst.

And we like to see each other, too, because there are bars between us, which make it almost piquant.' Giving him her soft little hand, she began at once to talk of things farthest from her heart.

She saw that she was deceiving Hilary, and this feather in the cap of her subtlety gave her pleasure.