"I seem to.... I didn't want to take the risk of his disapproval. I'm beginning to realize that we've been dishonest with him."
"That is an ugly word, little sister."
"I don't know any way to soften it. A girl is either honest or the contrary. I was not honest with Jim Edgerton."
"He might not disapprove, after all. He is no provincial."
"Yes—and he might disapprove. Men of his kind who stand for almost anything in outsiders are finicky about their own relatives. They really don't care what imprudence other people commit; they may even admire it—even do it themselves—but there's a difference as soon as it involves one of the family. I've an idea he is like that."
"Isn't it stretching a thin tie of kinship too far to speak of Jim Edgerton and ourselves in a family sense? Are you and I not rather inclined to abuse that word cousin, Diana?"
"He first used it to us," she said warmly; "it is his choice. He's a very impulsive and generous boy; do you know it?"
"Yes, I do.... Isn't it a thousand pities?"
"What about?"
"His losing everything—being so wretchedly poor.... And our being poor, too."