because the one had been a guarded, sheltered invalid, while the
other had gone forth among strangers to battle for a livelihood, and
moreover, the elder sister had been fully grown and developed before
the shock which had come on the still unformed Alison.

At any rate, nobody but Grace "got on" with the governess, while the
invalid made friends with all who visited her, and most signally with
Rachel, who, ere long, esteemed her environment a good work, worthy
of herself. The charity of sitting with a twaddling, muffatee-
knitting old lady was indisputable, but it was perfectly within
Grace's capacity; and Rachel believed herself to be far more capable
of entertaining the sick Miss Williams, nor was she mistaken. When
excited or interested, most people thought her oppressive; but Ermine
Williams, except when unwell, did not find her so, and even then a
sharp debate was sometimes a cure for the nervous ailments induced by
the monotony of her life. They seemed to have a sort of natural
desire to rub their minds one against the other, and Rachel could not
rest without Miss Williams's opinion of all that interested her--
paper, essay, book, or event; but often, when expecting to confer a
favour by the loan, she found that what was new to her was already
well known in that little parlour, and even the authorship no
mystery. Ermine explained this by her correspondence with literary
friends of her brother's, and country-bred Rachel, to whom literature
was still an oracle unconnected with living agencies, listened, yes,
absolutely listened to her anecdotes of sayings and doings, far more
like clever memoirs than the experiences of the banks of the Avon.
Perhaps there was this immediate disadvantage, that hearing of a more
intellectual tone of society tended to make Rachel less tolerant of
that which surrounded her, and especially of Mr. Touchett. It was
droll that, having so long shunned the two sisters under the