‘They must be almost like brothers to you now?’
I said:
‘Yes; almost.’
‘Walter knows them, I think? He knew them at Oxford.’
I said:
‘He does not know them very well.’
‘They would not be quite Walter’s type, perhaps . . . you see, Walter is so clever, he does not care much for people who are not . . . but he will, of course, my dear, later on, if they are your cousins. He has a most affectionate nature, and I am sure they are very nice young men!’
I suppose I did not respond, for she added quickly:
‘I did not mean, of course, that your cousins were stupid, Walter has never said such a thing to me, oh, not at all, but I thought from what he told me that they were . . . just . . . not quite like Walter . . . he has, of course, a quite exceptional brain.’
I said: