“She doesn’t think he’s a boy. Why! he’s almost of age! Lot of boy about Peter!”
“But do you mean——?”
“I don’t mean anything, Joan, if you’re going to look like that. You’ve got no right to interfere in Peter’s love affairs. Why should you? Don’t we all live for experience?”
“But,” said Joan, “Peter is different.”
“No. No one is different,” said Adela.
“But I tell you he’s my Peter.”
“He’s your brother, of course.”
“No!”
“Your half brother then. Everybody knows that, Joan—thanks to the Sheldricks. A sister can’t always keep her brothers away from other girls.”
Joan was on the verge of telling Adela that she was not even Peter’s half sister, but she restrained herself. She stuck to the thing that most concerned her now.