"But if any of us have the slightest feeling for those boys ... Until they are both safely away at school, at any rate, and he won't send them away for a year or two yet, at any rate."
"Harry not for three, I should say.... That is, I shouldn't."
Silence for a moment, then Aunt Selina:
"Well, can you think of any one that could be got to come here?"
Mrs. James fluttered for a moment, as though preparing for a delicate and difficult advance.
"I wonder," she said, "that is, the thought struck me to-day—if you—if you could ever—"
"Hilary and I," observed Aunt Selina in calm, clear impersonal tones that once for all disposed of the suggestion; "Hilary and I Do Not Get On. That way, I mean. At a distance—"
The sentence was completed by a gesture that somehow managed to convey an impression of understanding and amity at a distance. Mrs. James' subdued "Oh!" of comprehension, or rather of resignation, bid fair for a while to close the interview. But presently Aunt Selina, with the air of one accepting a sword offered with hilt toward her, asked, or rather observed, as though it was not a question at all, but a statement:
"What do you think of Agatha Fraile?"
"Well," replied Mrs. James with something of a burnt-child air; "I like her. Though I hardly know her, of course. I should say she would be willing, too. Though of course one can't tell.... They are not well off, I believe.... She is very good, no doubt...."