'All I want you to feel,' Amy says, getting closer to him, 'is that as
brother and sister, we are allies, you know--against the unknown.'

'Yes, Amy,' Cosmo says, and gets closer to her.

This so encourages her that she hastens to call him 'dear.'

'I want to say, dear, that I'm very sorry I used to shirk bowling to
you.'

'That's nothing. I know what girls are. Amy, it's all right, I really
am fond of you.'

'I have tried to be a sort of mother to you, Cosmo.'

'My socks and things--I know.' Returning anxiously to the greater
question, 'Amy, do we know anything of them at all?'

'We know some cold facts, of course. We know that father is much older
than mother.'

'I can't understand why such an old chap should be so keen to kiss
me.'

'Mother is forty,' Amy says in a low voice.

'I thought she was almost more than forty,' Cosmo says in a still
lower voice.