Twice also, within a few days, had this remark been passed on her name.
‘Why should it be strange?’
‘Because that was also the name of my mother and of my sister.’
‘Is your mother alive?’
He shook his head.
‘And your sister?’
‘I do not know. I remember her only faintly, and my father never speaks of her.’ Then he changed the subject. ‘You are very unlike Miss Barbara. I should not have supposed you were sisters.’
‘We are half-sisters. We had not the same mother.’
He was exhausted with speaking, and turned towards the wall. Eve seated herself in the chair vacated by Barbara. She occupied her fingers with making a cowslip ball, and when it was made she tossed it. Then, as he moved, she feared that she disturbed him, so she put the ball on the table, from which, however, it rolled off.
Jasper turned as she was groping for it.