And my gentle sister flushed red... even her big black eyes glowed as she said quietly... You have not understood what I meant. We took to each other from the start... But Yola, how can you say what you said, when you know me so well?

I boiled with anger... and meant to tell Yola what I thought of her, but my sister asked me to make the tea, so I went out.

* * *

My mother had been ill for ten years, since the birth of my youngest sister... and so Jill was the manager of the house... She went through weary times when we four children were small... Now that I had grown, I had become her helper.

We lived in a house built in the days of Queen Victoria, when houses were cheap and families numbered dozens. My father was the village parson... poor and respected.

I came back with the tea, and Yola was still talking. She said: And where is the ring?

My sister answered: Julian brought one, but its size did not fit my finger...

— Diamond, I suppose...?

— Sapphire, rather... he asked me, and I preferred sapphire.

— And you told him so...? I never thought you would.

My gentle sister did not answer... and Yola said:

— And what will they do here without you...?

I said: Our aunt will come to live with us... and then my mother will go to the north of France after the wedding... and she will come back to us stronger in body...

Yola looked at me and said: Will the bridegroom's family send her...?

And my sister answered in her usual calm:

— Julian wanted to give me something precious... pearls or the like, so I chose my mother's journey instead.

Yola began to laugh, the laugh of one who has no heart, then said: Jill, you astonish me... a journey for your mother instead of pearls...? And you told him so...?

My sister said with the same softness and good spirit... That is not exactly what happened... Julian knew I was troubled over my mother, and he said: you will take nothing for yourself, so what am I to do...?

Yola said mockingly: One would think he were marrying the whole family.

And I hated Yola... I felt she was jealous of Jill, and I found myself saying... How dare you say such a thing! Julian is lucky to have got Jill, and he knows it. His father said they need a personality like hers at the palace.

Yola said: As housekeeper, of course.

I was on the point of answering when my sister broke in and said with the same angelic calm:

They have a housekeeper, Yola... Then she went

on with the same softness... You are mistaken, Yola. I am marrying Julian — he rich, and we poor all our lives — not because he is rich... Even were he poor, I would do the same thing... And at that moment my mother came in.

* * *

My mother was tall and very thin, but a person it pleases you to see and to know... Her eyes and her features were like Jill's features and