'Hush! Don't speak lightly of a true heart, which is all your own,
Marion,' cried her sister, 'even in jest. There is not a truer
heart than Alfred's in the world!'

'No-no,' said Marion, raising her eyebrows with a pleasant air of
careless consideration, 'perhaps not. But I don't know that
there's any great merit in that. I - I don't want him to be so
very true. I never asked him. If he expects that I - But, dear
Grace, why need we talk of him at all, just now!'

It was agreeable to see the graceful figures of the blooming
sisters, twined together, lingering among the trees, conversing
thus, with earnestness opposed to lightness, yet, with love
responding tenderly to love. And it was very curious indeed to see
the younger sister's eyes suffused with tears, and something
fervently and deeply felt, breaking through the wilfulness of what
she said, and striving with it painfully.

The difference between them, in respect of age, could not exceed
four years at most; but Grace, as often happens in such cases, when
no mother watches over both (the Doctor's wife was dead), seemed,
in her gentle care of her young sister, and in the steadiness of
her devotion to her, older than she was; and more removed, in
course of nature, from all competition with her, or participation,
otherwise than through her sympathy and true affection, in her
wayward fancies, than their ages seemed to warrant. Great
character of mother, that, even in this shadow and faint reflection
of it, purifies the heart, and raises the exalted nature nearer to
the angels!